A minister has welcomed calls from 120 millionaires to pay more tax amid questions over how Andy Burnham will pay for a string of recently announced cost-of-living measures. Gary Lineker is among the signatories of the “Proud to Pay” letter, which claims cash raised from higher taxes on wealth could be used to reduce inequality, support public services and back small businesses.
It reads: “We want you to tax us. We can afford it. We’re not talking about higher taxes on those who get up and go to work for their income every day, but on the very richest whose income is derived from the wealth they hold.”
Signatories and ministerial response
Others who signed the letter from the Patriotic Millionaires UK campaign group include songwriter Brian Eno, former Greggs chairman Ian Gregg, economist and author Gary Stevenson and crime writer Val McDermid. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds said on Thursday that she welcomed the calls to increase the amount the rich pay into public coffers. But she would not be drawn into whether Mr Burnham’s government will consider what they are asking for.
“Well, look, it’s day four of this new government, and obviously any major tax changes would be announced at a budget,” she said. “I welcome the fact that people of good means are saying that they want to pay more. They can pay more. There is a link on gov.uk, but look, we have to look at tax policy in the round, and we only make major tax announcements at budgets.”
Cost-of-living measures and funding questions
The new Prime Minister has this week announced a raft of policies designed to tackle the cost of living. These include slashing business rates for pubs and music venues, capping bus fares at £2 and cutting VAT on energy bills. Mr Burnham has also insisted that raising the £12,570 personal allowance on income tax would be looked at ahead of the Budget. But questions have been raised over how the policies will be paid for.
Ms Reynolds said plans to cut business rates for hospitality venues are fully funded when it was put to her that the changes to tax rules for vape shops and online marketplaces due to pay for them are described as being in “review and consultation”. She told Sky News: “This is fully funded, and it will be funded in a couple of major ways. Firstly, by looking at business rate reliefs on businesses that cause social harm, such as vape shops, and secondly by cracking down on those online businesses who are not paying VAT.”
She added: “I am confident as Chief Secretary, having looked at the numbers, and we will set out the numbers in more detail at the budget, that we will fund this announcement in the ways that I’ve just mentioned. There may be additional measures that we look at as well, but it is those two principal ways that we’re going to fund this business rate relief.”
Chancellor's priorities
Former Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones - who was sacked from the Cabinet in Mr Burnham’s purge of Starmer loyalists - also threw the VAT cut on energy bills plan into chaos when he warned that no funding had been earmarked for the policy. It comes as John Healey set out his priorities as Chancellor on Thursday, telling businesses they were “the engine of growth and confidence in this country”.
At an event in London, he said his focus was on five points: fiscal discipline and ensuring “we meet our fiscal rules with a buffer against uncertainty”; growth in every postcode; backing Britain by “buying British as a Government at all levels”, driving wealth creation by raising the levels of investment, innovation, confidence, and of profit in British-based businesses; curbing the cost of living and the cost of doing business. Mr Healey said he wanted to step up the Treasury’s “support for and work with business” and deepen the relationship.
