Key Burnham ally puts pressure on for 2% 'wealth tax' on the richest - plus more state regulation of media

By SOPHIE CHURCH - POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 23:44, 10 August 2026 | Updated: 23:49, 10 August 2026 Andy Burnham will 'cost taxpayers billions' it was warned on Monday – after the new PM's Labour pals piled more pressure on him to introduce a wealth tax. In troubling news for Britain's highest earners, Mr Burnham has been urged by a staunch ally to bring in a two per cent wealth tax at his first Budget next month. A new report from Compass, a Labour group headed by Neal Lawson, is pushing the new Prime Minister to introduce a two per cent levy on net wealth above £10million – a move it claims would raise £24billion a year and affect 22,000 Brits. The leftist pressure group also calls for capital gains to be levelled with income tax, which it predicts will squeeze a further £11billion from Britain's richest. But Mr Burnham was warned last night that caving to demands for a wealth tax would 'send the signal that Britain is not a place for aspiration, investment or success'. Sir Mel Stride, shadow chancellor, said: 'Andy Burnham has barely got his feet under the desk and his allies are already drawing up a list of whose pockets to go through. 'It made no difference Andy Burnham replaced Keir Starmer because Labour are the problem. Andy Burnham's tax-more, borrow-more, spend-more agenda will cost taxpayers billions of pounds. 'Only the Conservatives have a leader with the backbone and strong team needed to restore confidence in the public finances by cutting debt through our Golden Economic Rule.' Neal Lawson (pictured last year) is pushing the new Prime Minister to introduce a two per cent levy on net wealth above £10million – a move it claims would raise £24billion a year and affect 22,000 Brits Robert Jenrick, Reform's economic spokesperson, added: 'Time and again history has proven wealth taxes simply do not work. 'Labour seems to think there's a bottomless pit of millionaires who'll swallow every tax rise. They won't. They'll leave, just as they have been leaving under this government, taking their businesses, jobs and tax revenue with them. 'Instead of dreaming up new ways to raid people's savings, the Government should focus on cutting government waste such as net zero, tackling the welfare bill and growing the economy through common-sense reform.' And Daniel Herring, head of Fiscal and Economic Policy at think tank the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), told the Daily Mail: 'As the CPS and many others have repeatedly pointed out, wealth taxes are unfair, unworkable, and send the signal that Britain is not a place for aspiration, investment or success. 'Andy Burnham would do well to ignore those around him who are pushing for wealth taxes if he wants to see Britain return to growth.' The number of millionaires has reduced by seven per cent since 2024 after former Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her tax-raising Autumn budget. But Labour figures are now capitalising on their party's lurch to the left under Mr Burnham by clamouring for a new tax on wealth. This is despite the top one per cent of earners paying nearly a third of all income tax in Britain. Labour MP for Middlesborough Andy McDonald told The i Paper that Labour 'should seriously consider a wealth tax' as does 'a replacement of council tax'. And Jon Trickett, Labour MP for Normanton and Hemsworth, said that a 'carefully calibrated wealth tax set sufficiently high as not to impact on the overwhelming majority' would 'both raise significant funds to help achieve progressive policies but also help to resolve the moral outrage of uncontrolled inequality'. John Healey, Mr Burnham's new Chancellor, will deliver the Autumn Budget on 28 October.