Group of millionaires call on Rishi Sunak to tax them more because ‘they can afford to pay it’

A group of British millionaires have called upon Chancellor Rishi Sunak to tax them and other rich people instead of raising national insurance for working people.

The evidently empathetic millionaires penned an open letter to the Chancellor, where they urged him to introduce a wealth tax on the nation’s richest people to help pay for the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and tackle the growing inequality gap.

The millionaires, who work in a number of different sectors and industries, wrote: “We understand the immense pressure on the Treasury to deal with crises both present and future – from inequality, to Covid, to climate change.

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“We know there will be high expectations for you to find the money needed. We know where you can find that money – tax wealth holders like us. We can afford to contribute more, and we want to invest in repairing and improving our shared services.

“We are proud to pay our taxes to reduce inequality, support stronger social care and the NHS, and to ensure that we’re building a more just and green society.”

They added that they want Sunak to ‘address the economic imbalance of the current tax system which places a deeply unequal burden on working people’.

The letter also acknowledged that the planned 1.25% increase in national insurance will ‘hit working people the hardest’, so taxes on the wealthiest in society should be increased instead: “The cost of recovery cannot fall on the young or on those with lower incomes. There are many of us – people with wealth – who will support a more progressive system of taxation, and we urge you to do the same.”

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According to The Guardian, Gary Stevenson, a multimillionaire former City trader and one of the signatories, said: “Instead of raising national insurance and taking £1,000 a year away from families on universal credit, the chancellor, who is a multimillionaire, should be taxing himself and people like me – people with wealth.

“We can’t expect to have a strong or stable recovery if the fiscal burden of it is placed on our care workers, street cleaners and teachers – key workers who deserve better – while we don’t tax the rich.”

Technology entrepreneur Gemma McGough, who also signed the letter, said it made economic sense to tax rich people more, saying: “This letter isn’t a goodwill statement, this is an attempt to shake the chancellor by the fiscal shoulders and wake him up.”