Healey under pressure from Labour MPs to hit billionaires with private jet tax

Pressure is mounting on chancellor John Healey to bring in a private jet tax on billionaires in a bid to help close the black hole in government finances.

The Independent has seen a cross party letter from 40 MPs, including a number of Labour MPs, arguing that the tax is fair and closes a loophole that means they are currently exempt.

It comes amid growing questions over how Mr Healey will find money to fund Andy Burnham’s pledges as well as fill a £5bn gap in planned defence spending.

It follows a survey from pollsters More in Common of more than 3,000 voters, seen by The Independent, which showed that 79 per cent back the move to tax private jet use that has previously been mooted by some backbench Labour MPs and supported by the new energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh.

The letter states: “By taxing private jets at the same effective rate as regular flights, and ending the tax exemption on private jet fuel, the exchequer could receive £2.7bn, which could be used on measures to support people across the country.

“This figure reflects the exact sum which, in July 2026, the research and innovation foundation, Nesta, estimated is needed to wipe out the backlog of consumer energy debts, providing debt relief for 2 million households and removing the need for all households to pay to cover the cost of unpaid energy bills.”

They added: “We suggest that a fair, effective and popular way to raise funds for measures to reduce the cost of living would be to increase the Air Passenger Duty (APD) that private jet passengers pay to the same level, as a proportion of the cost of those flights, as the tax levied on ordinary passengers travelling on commercial flights.”

Among the 40 signatories are Labour MPs Abtisam Mohamed, Alex Sobel, Bell Rebeiro-Addy, Cat Smith, Chris Bloore, Chris Hinchcliff, Ian Byrne, Martin Rhodes, Nadia Whittome, Neil Duncan-Jordan and Sarah Champion.

It comes amid questions over how Mr Healey will pay for Mr Burnham’s decision to remove VAT from energy bills, and cap bus tickets at £2.

The Budget is set for 28 October and Mr Healey is under pressure from other ministers and Labour MPs to raise taxes further but target the wealthy.

The cost of borrowing for the UK recently went up by £12bn after the most recent sale of government debt on the gilt market.

Another tax under consideration is equalising capital gains tax on assets sold in the UK with income tax, despite warnings from business over the consequences to inward investment.

The private jet tax could involve an increase to fuel duty and hikes to air passenger duty and would mostly hit billionaires because the use of private aircraft is heavily weighted among the super-rich.

It is believed that a private jet tax could raise as much as £2.7bn if fuel duty on private-jet kerosene is set at 10 times the road-fuel rate (£5.295 per litre), bringing in an extra £1.5bn a year; and if air passenger duty is hiked by 30 times its current rate adding £1.2bn.

Myles Cummins, aviation campaign manager at climate charity Possible, said: “As this polling shows, a majority of Britons support a tax on private jets so that the richest in society can pay their fair share.

“Private jet passengers are currently paying almost nothing in tax compared to the tax ordinary people pay for their flights, while also producing an astronomical amount of pollution on journeys that only the obscenely wealthy can afford. In the cost-of-living and climate crises, that simply isn’t acceptable. The numbers are clear: people want a private jet tax, so why aren't we doing something about it?”