The actor Greg Wise has said that he and wife Emma Thompson want to refuse to pay tax until those involved in the HSBC tax scandal are sent to prison. 

In an interview with The Evening Standard, the star said “I want to stop paying tax, until everyone pays tax.”

He continued “I have actively loved paying tax, because I am a profound f****** socialist and I believe we are all in it together," he continued. “But I am disgusted with HMRC. I am disgusted with HSBC. And I’m not paying a penny more until those evil bastards go to prison.”

His comments come following recent revelations by the Guardian that HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and HSBC's Swiss arm had helped clients to move cash out of the country, following leaked details of 100,000 accounts held by the bank.

And he confirmed that his Oscar-winning wife is in support of the decision “Em’s on board. She agrees. We’re going to get a load of us together. A movement. They can’t send everyone to prison. But we’ll go to prison if necessary. I mean it. It’s going to be like 1848 all over again."

The 48-year-old, who is currently starring in his first play for 17 years called Kill Me Now, met his wife on the set of Sense and Sensibility. At the time Emma was separating from husband Kenneth Branagh.

“There was a screening of Sense and Sensibility at the weekend at the Tricycle,” he says. “I hadn’t seen it for 20 years, and f***, it’s a good film. I was looking at us, these children. It’s romantic to think we’re still here struggling on.”

The couple met in 1995 and have been together ever since, marrying in 2003. They have one child. Gaia, via IVF born in 1999 and have also informally adopted a Rwandan orphan and former child soldier named Tindyebwa Agaba. 

They currently live in West Hampstead on the same road Emma grew up on.