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The UK’s king of virtue signalling has served up another blinder. Gary Lineker has joined 119 fellow millionaires in signing an open letter calling on Andy Burnham to raise their taxes. The smug-fest, organised by the tediously grandstanding campaign group Patriotic Millionaires, declared: ‘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.’
Curiously, while promoting his valiant plea to surrender more of his fortune, dear Gary neglected to mention that as recently as March 2023 he took HMRC to a tribunal over a disputed £4.9 million tax bill. The taxman pursued the former Match of the Day presenter over levies on his BBC and BT Sport income between 2013 and 2014, and 2017 and 2018. After winning the case and keeping his cash, Lineker boasted on social media:
I had already paid all tax due at the top rate and happily so. I’m totally flabbergasted as to why I was expected to pay double. Thankfully justice was done.
How touching. Where was this newfound patriotic devotion to HMRC then, Mr S cannot help but wonder?
