One hundred and twenty UK millionaires signed an open letter to newly installed Prime Minister Andy Burnham on 23 July 2026, urging him to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy. The letter, organised by Patriotic Millionaires UK under the banner 'Proud to Pay,' includes the line: 'As millionaires we have a clear message for you, our new Prime Minister: tax us. We are proud to pay and here to stay.' Al Jazeera

Signatories include sports broadcaster Gary Lineker and actress Julia Davies. The group published the letter on its own website on 22 July, and it was subsequently covered by the BBC, The Independent, and Al Jazeera. Patriotic Millionaires UK also promoted the appeal on its official Instagram account, stating that Lineker joined more than 100 millionaires in the initiative. BBC The Independent

The letter arrives at a moment of apparent political alignment. On 22 July, Burnham said in a podcast interview that his administration may consider a wealth tax and that he believes in 'a greater sense of fairness.' Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds responded to the millionaires' letter the following day, welcoming the initiative but stating that major tax changes would only be announced at a budget. That stance signals no immediate fiscal shift, but leaves the door open for the government to incorporate wealth-tax measures in a forthcoming fiscal event. Al Jazeera

The Patriotic Millionaires' letter puts forward specific revenue claims. They assert that a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million could raise £24 billion per year. They further claim that reforms to capital gains tax could raise an additional £12 billion annually. These figures come from the group's own letter and have not been independently verified by HM Treasury or the Office for Budget Responsibility in the reporting available. A separate report by economists Gabriel Zucman and Ben Tippet proposed a more narrowly targeted measure: a 2% minimum annual tax on UK residents holding more than £100 million in assets, with an estimated yield of approximately £10 billion per year. Al Jazeera

The 'Proud to Pay' campaign fits into a longer arc of organised millionaire activism on both sides of the Atlantic. In January 2026, nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires globally signed a letter associated with the World Economic Forum in Davos calling for higher taxes on the super-rich. Actor Mark Ruffalo was among those involved in the Davos appeal. In May 2026, The Guardian reported research finding that three-quarters of UK millionaires would be willing to pay more tax. Patriotic Millionaires UK noted at the time that the sample size reflected the smaller UK millionaire population. The group also described the Sunday Times Rich List as a 'smack in the face' in commentary reported by The Guardian that same month. The Guardian, January 2026 The Guardian, May 2026

The broader context here is a UK fiscal landscape in which a newly seated prime minister has explicitly floated a wealth tax before receiving an organised letter requesting one. Reynolds' carefully bounded response, confining any substantive announcement to a formal budget, reflects standard Treasury discipline: policy decisions on taxation are typically not made in response to open letters, regardless of who signs them. The gap between the Patriotic Millionaires' £24 billion revenue estimate for a 2% levy above £10 million and the Zucman-Tippet estimate of roughly £10 billion for a 2% levy above £100 million is wide enough to invite scrutiny. Differences in the threshold, the asset base measured, behavioural assumptions around capital flight, and enforcement mechanisms all affect revenue projections substantially. Neither estimate has been subjected to OBR scoring in the reporting available.

What remains unresolved is whether Burnham's podcast remark about 'a greater sense of fairness' translates into a concrete wealth-tax proposal at his first budget. The Patriotic Millionaires have given him a talking point and a list of headline figures. Whether Treasury officials give him a costed policy is a separate question, and one that will turn on fiscal projections rather than open letters.