Gary Lineker is leading 120 millionaires in demanding to be taxed even more in an open letter to the Prime Minister.
The “Proud to Pay” letter, written to Andy Burnham, has been organised by campaign group Patriotic Millionaires UK and calls for higher taxes on wealth to reduce inequality, support public infrastructure and back small businesses.
Mr Lineker said most rich people “want to” pay more.
He said: “Paying your fair share is a basic British value, but so many ordinary people are already paying more than they can afford.
“Our richest people can do more and most want to.
“Our fantastic country deserves all of us to get behind it.”
“To live up to our national values our new Government must raise taxes on extreme levels of wealth for a fairer, better, more hopeful Britain,” the England star-turned-pundit wrote.
Patriotic Millionaires said 75 per cent of British millionaires it asked were in favour of higher taxes on themselves and 88 per cent proud to live in the UK.
The organisation’s letter 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.”
Other notable signatories include musician Brian Eno, former Greggs chairman Ian Gregg, investor Julia Davis and wealth tax campaigner Gary Stevenson, who claims to have been Citibank’s most profitable trader in the world in 2011.
The Treasury currently allows people to voluntarily pay as much tax as they like, which seems to have been overlooked by the 120 wealthy Britons signing the letter.
Direct bank transfers can also be made to the Debt Management Office for the specific purpose of reducing the national debt.
Patriotic Millionaires said that as Mr Burnham seeks to decentralise political power he should also “disperse economic power”.
“Extreme wealth sitting idle in the hands of a few can be put to work: reducing inequality, investing in sustainable jobs, strengthening hospitals, schools and social care, supporting entrepreneurs with the skills and infrastructure they need, and giving small businesses access to affordable finance,” the letter added.
Netflix has recently extended its contract with Mr Lineker’s podcast show The Rest is Football until 2028.
He was the BBC’s highest-paid star when he hosted Match of the Day, earning an annual salary of around £1.75million each year between 2016 and 2020.
The podcast host raised the issue of a wealth tax to Mr Burnham in an interview last week.
The Prime Minister said: “I’m not going rule things out right now. I do believe we need a greater sense of fairness.”
Ms Davies, a founding member of Patriotic Millionaires UK who runs an environmental investment fund, said: “We millionaires are here to be taxed more and we urge our new PM to grab this opportunity with both hands and tax our wealth.”
She added: “This is a fresh opportunity for our country. A chance for the Prime Minister to help rebalance power, reduce the shocking levels of wealth inequality which intensifies the cost of living crisis, and raise much-needed revenue for our public services, improving life for everyone.”
