Sir Keir Starmer rules out 10% transfer tax on Premier League football clubs

Labour has pledged to bring forward football governance reforms if elected - but Sir Keir said this would not include a 10% transfer levy, after a shadow minister suggested she would look at this measure.

Faye Brown

Political reporter

Tuesday 18 June 2024 15:47, UK

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Labour will not introduce a 10% tax on Premier League transfers, Sir Keir Starmer said after one of his shadow ministers suggested they would consider the move.

The Labour leader told LBC's Nick Ferrari it was "not part of our plans for football governance".

"Let me just kill it dead, we're not looking at that", he said.

Labour has pledged to bring forward football governance reforms that would prevent breakaways in the style of the ill-fated European Super League if it wins the general election.

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On Monday, shadow sports secretary Thangam Debbonaire was asked if this would include reviving the transfer levy - something which was recommended in a 2021 fan-led review but not taken up by the Conservatives in their version of the bill.

Ms Debbonaire said she was "going to look at everything again" that was in the review.

Speaking from Bristol Rovers' football ground, she added: "A club like this, it's not the wealthiest club in the world, and it wants to be able to invest in infrastructure.

"It wants to be able to make sure that facilities are good for the future.

"That does take money, so I'm going to look at absolutely everything that might help increase the financial sustainability."

Sir Keir suggested Ms Debbonaire did not mean to highlight the 10% Premier League transfer levy as being an option under consideration.

Asked why his minister did not kill the idea the previous day, he told reporters: "What was put to her yesterday was whether we'd look again at the Tracey Crouch report and the recommendations in it.

"And she said, yes, as a general proposition. Now within that you had this specific issue. So she wasn't really meaning to highlight that particular one."

The fan-led review of football governance was conducted by Conservative MP Tracey Crouch in 2021, in response to long-standing concerns about club ownership and financial sustainability in the English game.

Ms Crouch said the transfer levy would work in a similar way to stamp duty and "distribute revenues across the pyramid and into grassroots".

Her review estimated a 10% levy would have raised £160m per year between 2016 and 2021, enough to fund a grant to ensure League One and Two clubs broke even - along with grassroots playing facilities for adults and children.

However, it was one of the few ideas in the review not adopted by the Tories in its Football Governance Bill, which aimed to establish an independent regulator for men's football.

That legislation was set aside after the general election was called for 4 July.

Labour has announced its version of the bill, saying this would put fans at the heart of decisions over the future of English football.

The party's manifesto includes a commitment to deliver a new independent football regulator.

The manifesto also says "we will never allow a closed league of select clubs to be siphoned off from the English football pyramid".

In 2021, six English clubs - Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham - announced they would join a new European Super League, which was scrapped two days later following a public backlash.

Sir Keir, who accompanied Ms Debbonaire on the visit to Bristol Rovers yesterday, said that "too often, clubs and fans are being let down by the wild west within the football pyramid".

"That's why we will legislate for the long-awaited independent football regulator," the Labour leader added.

"In the face of continued threats of breakaways from some European clubs, we have to do this.

"On my watch, there will be no super league-style breakaways from English football."

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