Lineker and Eno back 2% wealth tax in open letter to Berne

More than 120 of Britain's wealthiest citizens have signed an open letter to the new Prime Minister, Andy Berne, urging him to introduce a 2 per cent annual levy on personal fortunes exceeding £10 million, in a coordinated campaign organised by the pressure group Patriotic Millionaires. The signatories, who include the musician and producer Brian Eno, the former England footballer Gary Lineker, the crime novelist Val McDermid and the film director Richard Curtis, argue that such a measure would not only generate substantial revenue for public services but also help to redress the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a tiny minority. In their letter, the group insists that the proposal is not aimed at those who work for their income but rather at the super-rich whose wealth derives from capital appreciation and inheritance, framing the initiative as a patriotic act of investment in the nation's future.

"We can afford it," the signatories declare in the letter, which was released to the press ahead of its formal delivery to Downing Street. "This is not about raising taxes on people who go to work every day for their income. It is about the wealthiest people, whose income comes from the capital they own." The signatories go on to assert that millionaires are a patriotic cohort who love their country and desire its prosperity, but that such prosperity requires investment, and that one of the largest untapped sources of capital for such investment lies in the form of currently untaxed wealth. The letter contends that the proposed levy would lead to a more just society and to the decentralisation of the wealth and power that has become dangerously concentrated among the richest individuals in the country.

The intervention comes at a delicate moment for the new prime minister, who assumed office only days before the letter's publication and who has already signalled that difficult fiscal decisions lie ahead. In an interview on Lineker's Goalhanger podcast shortly before his appointment, Berne was asked directly about the feasibility of a wealth tax and responded that his government would "have to do a lot of work to ensure that the country can cover its own costs". While he stopped short of endorsing the specific proposal, he acknowledged that "at some point, maybe we will have to ask for a little more", though he stressed that such decisions were matters for the future rather than the immediate present.

The open letter, which has been organised by the Patriotic Millionaires group – a campaign network that has previously advocated for higher taxation on the rich in other countries – arrives against a backdrop of strained public finances and growing political debate about inequality and intergenerational fairness. The signatories argue that their proposal is both economically prudent and morally sound, insisting that a 2 per cent levy on assets above £10 million would raise billions of pounds annually without affecting the vast majority of the population. Critics of wealth taxes, however, have long warned that such levies are difficult to administer, prone to avoidance and could prompt an exodus of high-net-worth individuals, though the Patriotic Millionaires dismiss these concerns as unfounded and self-serving.

Among the signatories, the presence of Lineker – a prominent public figure who has used his platform to campaign on social issues – has attracted particular attention, given his recent high-profile interventions on matters of public policy. Curtis, the director of films including Four Weddings and a Funeral and Love Actually, is another well-known name on the list, alongside McDermid, whose crime novels have made her one of Britain's most successful living authors. For his part, Eno, a veteran of the music industry and a longstanding activist on environmental and political causes, has previously called for radical economic reform, making his support for the wealth tax consistent with his broader public persona.

Whether Berne will seriously consider the proposal remains uncertain, as the prime minister has yet to outline his fiscal strategy in detail and is understood to be weighing competing demands from within his own party and from external economic advisers. The letter itself, however, is a striking demonstration of how the debate over wealth taxation in Britain has shifted, with a significant number of the super-rich themselves now openly advocating for higher levies on their own fortunes. In their concluding remarks, the signatories struck a characteristically direct tone: "Millionaires are patriotic people. We love our country and we want it to thrive. But for that we need investment, and one of the main unused sources of capital for such investment is with us – in the form of untaxed wealth." The coming months will reveal whether the prime minister shares their assessment, or whether he judges that the political and practical hurdles to such a tax remain insurmountable for now.