Burnham says “we under tax wealth” but will he do anything about it?

Tax Justice UK have posted a video filmed in November, challenging the newly elected Makerfield MP and likely-PM Andy Burnham on his position on wealth taxes. This comes as Burnham looks likely to take the top job of PM, leading many to pay attention to whether he sticks by his prior commitments.

At the time, Andy Burnham seemed to recognise the unfairness of a system that taxes work heavily while allowing many of the wealthiest to pay less than ordinary workers.

He notably said:

We under tax wealth.

If you take something as simple as council tax, people here [Manchester city centre] in often reasonably modest properties are paying a much higher council tax than people in the very biggest properties in London.

So, we haven’t got these things in correct balance.

Whether he will do anything to correct this imbalance — or simply become another Westminster politician claiming that change is “too difficult” while ordinary people continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of the burden — remains to be seen.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Tax Justice UK (@taxjusticeuk)

Burnham: “We need a united kingdom”

However, it is worth noting that his response was pretty awkward and suggests his political will to push for wealth taxes might require consistent pressure to ensure he doesn’t yield to the super rich — like Starmer and other establishment politicians have before him.

Nevertheless, Burnham spoke of growing divisions in the UK and, in contrast to far-right Farage, highlighted how one of those divisions is the huge inequality in wealth.

It is perhaps no surprise that Farage is so keen to channel public anger elsewhere: as a millionaire, he has been one of the profiteers of the very status quo he claims to be fighting against.

Speaking to Patriotic Millionaires UK and Louisa Munch back in November 2025, Burnham stated his view on tax justice in the UK:

Well, I think in this country we over tax people’s work, so the people outside here walking through piccadilly gardens, Manchester city centre, they pay a higher percentage, don’t they, on their income and we under tax wealth.

If you take something as simple as council tax, people here [Manchester city center] in often reasonably modest properties are paying a much higher council tax than people in the very biggest properties in London.

So, we haven’t got these things in correct balance.

Speaking to these growing divisions – but not the ones Farage is stoking, instead the divide in wealth in the UK – Burnham added:

We need a more united, more cohesive country that isn’t so divided, if you like, adrift with such inequality, [be]cause you know we’ve got to get back to feeling like one country again where everyone is being treated fairly and the truth of the matter is, since the 80’s or 90’s, the gap has just got bigger and bigger.

And for too long in Westminster there’s been a sort of thing of, “Oh you can’t talk about that”, the main party sometimes has said “oh, well that’s too complicated, too difficult”, but it can’t be can it, you know, we’re gonna get back to a more ‘united kingdom’.

Inequality is hurting us all — apart from Farage

Inequality in the UK has provided the perfect conditions for far-right millionaire Farage to stoke hate and division, using grievance politics as a tool to further his own interests. Ordinary, hard-working people are paying more for less, whilst vulnerable marginalised groups and disabled people are being blamed for their ‘need’ as opposed to looking at the impact of the super-rich’s greed on the state.

Addressing wealth inequality is far from the Reform leader’s priorities — in fact, he will make them worse by reducing taxes on the wealthiest which will just drive inequality even further. He will also abolish the minimum wage and reduce rights for workers — giving more power to bosses.

If we tackled the inequality that divides us — in income, housing, and opportunity — life would improve for the many rather than the few. The biggest losers would be those whose wealth has ballooned to record levels and whose influence over politics and the economy has grown alongside it.

Their fortunes were not created in a vacuum. Much of that wealth has been extracted from the labour and spending power of ordinary people, and a fairer share should be returned to the public purse. Instead, taxpayers subsidise workers trapped on low wages while employers rake in ever-larger profits and the wealthiest find ways to reduce their tax bills.

The public shoulders the cost while the richest reap the rewards.

When Labour came into power, a report revealed inequality had increased by almost 50% thanks to neoliberalism, which has also seen the middle classes share of wealth decline.

Much of this wealth is unearned, as our own James Wright wrote in October 2024:

The Fairness Foundation notes that a lot of the wealth accumulation from the top 10% is through an increase in the value of assets, which is unearned income. It’s entirely not the case that they are working harder than those at the middle or bottom on the wealth scale. Indeed, the majority of private wealth is inherited – at 60%, according to the report.

Tax Justice Network made a similar point in their research arguing for a wealth tax and a balancing of income tax with capital gains tax so people aren’t contributing less from passive income. This could also address the rampant inequality.

Wealth taxes are desperately needed to curb this divide

Like Burnham rightly says, the UK is divided most through wealth inequality — and neoliberal politics is how those divisions have grown. However, Burnham is a neoliberal politician, so will likely do what he can to maintain that status quo.

But the far-right feeds on inequality. Therefore, Reform UK and its opportunistic politicians will never address the economic failures driving it, because grievance is their business model.

As a result, Burnham could have a real impact on curbing Reform UK’s rise to power by finally addressing this long overlooked and entrenched issue in British society. If he reduces the harms of inequality, he can take away Farage’s fuel to hoodwink ordinary people.

Whether he will translate those words into action remains to be seen.

Featured image via the Canary