On 23 July 2026, 120 UK millionaires signed an open letter to the country's new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, asking him to raise taxes on the very wealthy. The letter was organised by a group called Patriotic Millionaires UK under the name 'Proud to Pay.' It 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 then 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 arrived at a moment when the government seemed open to the idea. On 22 July, Burnham said in a podcast interview that his administration may consider a wealth tax. A wealth tax means taxing what people own in total (their assets), not just what they earn in income. Burnham said he believes in 'a greater sense of fairness.' The next day, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds responded to the millionaires' letter, welcoming the initiative but saying that major tax changes would only be announced at a budget. That means no immediate change, but it leaves the door open for the government to include wealth-tax measures in a future budget. Al Jazeera

The Patriotic Millionaires' letter makes specific claims about how much money a wealth tax could raise. They say a 2% tax on wealth above £10 million could bring in £24 billion per year. They also say that changing capital gains tax could raise another £12 billion annually. Capital gains tax is the tax you pay when you sell something for a profit, like stocks or a house. These figures come from the group's own letter and have not been checked or confirmed by HM Treasury or the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is the UK's independent body for checking government financial estimates. A separate report by economists Gabriel Zucman and Ben Tippet proposed a narrower version: a 2% annual tax on people holding more than £100 million in assets, which they estimate would raise about £10 billion per year. Al Jazeera

The 'Proud to Pay' campaign is part of a longer pattern of wealthy people pushing for higher taxes on the super-rich. In January 2026, nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires around the world signed a letter at the World Economic Forum in Davos calling for higher taxes on the super-rich. Actor Mark Ruffalo was among those involved. 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 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 that a new prime minister had already mentioned a wealth tax before this letter even arrived. Reynolds' response, limiting any real announcement to a formal budget, follows normal Treasury practice: tax decisions are generally not made in response to open letters, no matter who signs them. The gap between the Patriotic Millionaires' £24 billion estimate and the Zucman-Tippet estimate of roughly £10 billion is wide enough to raise questions. The difference comes down to where you set the threshold, what types of assets you count, how many wealthy people might move their money abroad to avoid the tax, and how strictly the rules are enforced. Neither estimate has been formally checked by the Office for Budget Responsibility in the reporting available.

What is still unclear is whether Burnham's podcast remark about 'a greater sense of fairness' will turn into an actual wealth-tax proposal at his first budget. The Patriotic Millionaires have given him a talking point and some headline numbers. Whether Treasury officials give him a fully costed policy is a separate question, and it will depend on financial projections rather than open letters.