Sol Campbell
The former England star warned the tax would penalise people who have done well for themselves Reuters

Sol Campbell is the latest celebrity to weigh into the row over Labour's proposed "mansion tax", after the former England footballer said the plan was a "tax on aspiration".

The 40-year-old told the BBC's Daily Politics that Ed Miliband's proposal, to tax houses worth more than £2m ($3.1m, €2.5m), is "anything but fair".

"An Englishman's home is his castle, but under Labour's proposal for a mansion tax - that castle is under threat," the former Arsenal player said.

"Labour's plans will penalise those individuals who have done well for themselves.

"Miliband keeps banging on bout fairness in society, but this tax is anything but fair and it's flawed."

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Campbell, who is building a property portfolio, claimed the proposal is a "tax on aspiration".

"Labour would be better off targeting companies like Google, Amazon, Starbucks – making them pay a fairer level of tax. Rather than picking on people like me who have already paid their dues ten times over," Campbell said.

The comments come after media personality and model Myleene Klass attacked Miliband over the policy when the pair appeared on ITV'S The Agenda.

"You may as well just tax me on this glass of water. You can't just point at things and tax them," Klass said.

"For me, it's so disturbing – the name in its own right: 'mansion tax'.

"Immediately you conjure up an image of these Barbie-esque houses, but in London, which is where 80% of the people who will be paying this tax actually live, have you seen what that amount of money can get you? It's like a garage."

Labour have said that the proceeds from the tax would go into a £2.5bn "time to care" fund to create 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 more care-workers and 3,000 more midwives by 2020.

A poll from YouGov from The Sun in September found that 30% of voters "tended to support" the "mansion tax" proposal and 42% of people "strongly supported" the policy.

But only 7% of respondents said they "strongly opposed" the idea and 11% said they "tended to oppose" the plan.

Ed Miliband