Caine blasts UK tax rises as 'the limit'

Sir Michael Caine has blasted UK tax rises and said that any further increases will force him, and other celebrities, to move abroad.

The Oscar-winning actor told The Daily Telegraph that Chancellor Alistair Darling's 2009 Budget decision to increase income tax to 50% for the country's highest earners had made him seriously consider leaving the country.

"I will not pay the Government more than I get. No way, ever. So they've reached their limit with me. That's the lot," he said, adding that other talented stars would probably follow suit.

Caine also suggested that the Government should focus instead on finding jobs for the unemployed: "We've got three-and-a-half million layabouts laying about on benefits and I'm 76 getting up at six o'clock in the morning to go to work to keep them.

"Let's get everybody back to work so we can save a couple of billion and cut tax, not to keep sticking it on".