Tax Us Super-Rich More, Lineker Begs PM
24th July 2026
Gary Lineker has called on Andy Burnham to tax millionaires more, telling the new prime minister: “We can afford it.”
If you can afford it, just write a check. But that’s not your point, is it? You want to force everybody else to pay what you think they ought to pay, rather than just deciding for yourself. This is what totalitarians do.
The former footballer joined more than 100 British-based millionaires including the screenwriter Richard Curtis, the novelist Val McDermid, and the ex-City trader Gary Stevenson who signed a letter urging Burnham to impose a 2 per cent levy on wealth over £10 million.
Note that these guys don’t have Real Jobs, where you have to make and sell a product and meet a payroll. They push words; words are free and there are always new ones available. No word-pusher ever has his supply of words liquidated in bankruptcy, or repossessed.
Burnham has previously signalled his intention to overhaul the tax system in order to fund his policy ambitions and refused to rule out a wealth tax when speaking on Lineker’s podcast earlier this month. He told the former Match of the Day presenter that his government may “ask for a little more”, adding: “I do believe we need a greater sense of fairness.”
Like many socialists, he apparently thinks that ‘millionaires’ have money-bins, like Scrooge McDuck, where their money just sits around waiting for them to swim in it. Word-pushers may have that, I don’t know. But most ‘millionaires’ have their money invested in businesses that provide jobs, provide goods or services, and actually generate the GDP that keeps the machines running.