Millionaires including Gary Lineker urge Burnham to raise wealth taxes
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Gary Lineker has joined more than 100 UK-based millionaires in signing an open letter urging new prime minister Andy Burnham to increase taxes on wealth, arguing that the country's richest people can afford to pay more. The letter, organised by campaign group Patriotic Millionaires UK, came as Burnham looked to fund a series of early cost-of-living policies and had previously left the door open to a wealth tax, telling Lineker his government may "ask for a little more" from the wealthy.
Signatories included screenwriter Richard Curtis, novelist Val McDermid and former City trader Gary Stevenson, alongside Lineker, who said "paying your fair share is a basic British value". The group specifically called for a 2 per cent levy on wealth over £10m, which they said could raise £24bn a year, stressing this should target unearned wealth rather than working income. The intervention followed a Labour row over how Burnham's early measures, including a £2 bus fare cap and an £850m electricity bill tax cut, would be funded, with critics including Sir Mel Stride questioning whether the government's spending commitments were properly costed.
- Over 100 millionaires, led by Gary Lineker, urged Burnham to tax wealth more
- Group proposed a 2% levy on wealth over £10m, raising an estimated £24bn yearly
- Comes amid Labour dispute over funding Burnham's cost-of-living policies
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Andy Burnham became prime minister after a change of Labour leadership, and is now weighing up how to pay for a set of policies aimed at easing the cost of living, including a £2 cap on bus fares and a large cut to household electricity bills. Funding these commitments has proved contentious within the party, prompting questions from opposition figures about where the money will come from.
Gary Lineker, the former footballer and broadcaster, is among more than 100 wealthy Britons who have signed an open letter calling on Burnham to raise taxes on wealth to help cover the costs. The letter was organised by Patriotic Millionaires UK, a campaign group whose members argue that the wealthiest people in the country should contribute more, and it proposes a 2 per cent tax on wealth above £10 million.
The issue matters because it touches on a long-running debate about how governments should raise money: through taxes on income that people earn from working, or through taxes on existing wealth such as property, investments and savings. Burnham has previously signalled he is open to asking wealthier people to contribute more, making this letter part of a wider argument over tax policy under his government.
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The case for
Advocates for the wealth levy argue that a 2 per cent charge on assets above £10m is a modest, proportionate ask that targets unearned wealth such as property and investments rather than income from work, meaning it need not discourage entrepreneurship or effort. They point to the scale of revenue involved, around £24bn a year, as a way to fund tangible relief for struggling households, such as capped bus fares and lower electricity bills, without raising taxes on ordinary earners. For signatories like Lineker and Curtis, the appeal rests on a civic principle: that those with the broadest shoulders and the greatest capacity to pay should contribute more, especially at a time of acute cost-of-living pressure, and that doing so voluntarily and publicly reflects a basic sense of fairness and national solidarity.
The case against
Sceptics of a wealth tax argue that taxing accumulated assets, rather than income, risks discouraging investment, entrepreneurship and the retention of wealth-creators in the UK, potentially prompting relocation abroad and eroding the very tax base the policy hopes to draw on. They caution that valuing illiquid assets such as property, business equity or art is administratively complex and costly, and that projected revenues like the £24bn figure often prove optimistic once avoidance, capital flight and behavioural change are factored in. Critics such as Sir Mel Stride also frame this as part of a broader concern about the government's fiscal credibility, arguing that reaching for wealth taxes to plug funding gaps for policies like bus fare caps or energy bill cuts may signal short-term thinking rather than a sustainable economic strategy, and that a small number of high-profile millionaires volunteering to pay more does not necessarily reflect the interests or agreement of wealth-holders more broadly.
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Originally published by The Independent as “Gary Lineker leads British millionaires telling Burnham: ‘We want to pay more tax’”.