Gary Lineker and Brian Eno urge higher taxes on UK millionaires

Gary Lineker and Brian Eno joined about 120 UK-based millionaires in a letter to Andy Burnham urging him to make them pay more tax, telling him, “we can afford it”. The appeal, organised by the Patriotic Millionaires group, is a direct test of whether Burnham can turn high-profile backing into real fiscal cover for a wealth tax.

The policy being pushed is specific. Academics told Burnham that a wealth tax on the UK’s super-rich households could raise £10bn a year if it took the form of a 2% minimum charge on households with more than £100m in wealth. That would put the burden far beyond the celebrity signatories and onto a very small group of ultra-wealthy households.

Burnham had already signalled on 15 July that a wealth tax was off the agenda for now, even as he faced pressure over tax and spending choices. He had pledged not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, while also suggesting there could be some movement on tax policy. The letter now gives him a public marker on one of the most politically sensitive options available to him.

The wider climate is moving in the same direction. In May 2026, research found that three-quarters of UK millionaires would be happy to pay more tax, and in January nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires from 24 countries called for higher taxes on the super-rich. That does not make a wealth tax easy to pass, but it does show that opposition from wealthy voters is not as uniform as parties often assume.

Lineker’s support carries its own political baggage. In March 2023, he won a dispute with HM Revenue & Customs over a £4.9m tax bill, and in November 2017 a scheme that let him avoid tax on his Barbados home was revealed. Eno has long backed similar campaigns, including the 2022 English National Opera row, when Burnham told the company that Manchester was not “all heathens”.

For Burnham, the issue is not celebrity endorsement but whether he is willing to put a concrete levy on households with more than £100m in wealth into serious debate. His 15 July statement left that option out of immediate plans, so the new letter reads less like a public-relations flourish than a challenge to his credibility on taxation.