James May tells LBC: Tax on the super-rich is a bad idea... and pub rates cut is not going to make a difference

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The former Top Gear presenter, who owns a pub in Wiltshire, told LBC's Tom Swarbrick at Drive that the government's plans to cut business rates paid by pubs and live music venues by 20% wouldn't be "really noticeable".

May, who has co-owned the Royal Oak pub in Swallowcliffe since 2020, told Swarbrick that the tax cut would probably save his business "about £4,500 a year".

But he added: "If you spread that out, let's say we pass that all on to the customer, looking at the number of people we have visiting spread over a whole year...I don't think it's really noticeable, to be honest."

The policy was announced by Andy Burnham on Thursday, three days after he became the UK's seventh Prime Minister in a a decade.

Read more: Upcoming energy price rises will ‘wipe out all savings from VAT cut’, says Martin Lewis

Read more: Burnham defends limiting business rate cuts, saying pubs are ‘our heritage’

He said the tax cut, which will cost the government £100m, would serve as a "first step" to revive the UK's struggling hospitality industry.

Despite saying he welcomed that Burnham was "thinking about things like pubs and small businesses", May said he was "not a massive fan of governments interfering with the running of these things."

He added: "I sort of think they have to survive on their own merits. Yes, that's a very unpopular view."

The presenter said that the cut wouldn't be "that significant for most people, spread out over the year" but said that "halving the rate of VAT" would do "quite a lot to increase business and footfall".

May, 63, also said he "didn't agree" with Gary Lineker's plea for Andy Burnham to tax millionaires more.

The football pundit was one of 120 Brits to sign an open letter calling on the PM to raise taxes "on the very richest whose income is derived from the wealth they hold."

May said: "I already pay loads of tax. Am I supposed to volunteer to pay some more?"

He added: "Those people who say, I'd gladly pay an extra 2% tax if it went to the homeless or military veterans or the disabled or whatever - there are plenty of people who will take that extra 2% from you if you wish to donate it."

"Wealthier people already pay more tax. The rate increases and it's a greater absolute amount...I'm saying this as someone who has always declared all of his income in the UK and paid the tax on it."

May - a presenter on BBC's Top Gear for 12 years between 2003 and 2015- was also asked for his views on the future of the broadcaster.

It follows reports that half a million people refused to pay the £180 licence fee last year.

It has been reported that the government is reportedly drawing up plans which would require Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime users to cough up the licence fee.

"I would like to see the BBC survive," May said. "I suspect it needs a bit of a kicking here and there and a bit of a rethink. But I think as an idea, they are right."

He said it would be "reasonable" to ask companies such as Netflix and Amazon to contribute to the running of the BBC.

"I think it's quite an interesting idea, and presumably we wouldn't be talking about a huge contribution from people like Amazon, Netflix."

James May also said he thinks the UK should have the same alcohol laws as Switzerland, where 16 and 17 year olds are allowed to buy fermented alcohol such as beer and wine.

"I think a lot of the rules about alcohol and, and pub opening times and things in Britain are very arcane and completely baffling," he said.

"I think most people are reasonably adult, and those who aren't adult about this sort of thing i.e., drinking excessively and so on, no amount of lawmaking or pub opening times or licensing is actually going to make any difference to that."