Actor Sir Roger Moore said he had paid his fair share of taxes in the UK and denied he was being unpatriotic by living abroad.
The former James Bond star told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics programme yesterday that he would return to Britain if he could afford to buy a house in the country.
And he added that he thought Prime Minister David Cameron was doing “wonderfully well” over the European crisis.
Speaking to 5 Live’s chief political correspondent John Pienaar, Sir Roger, 84, who divides his time between Switzerland and Monaco, discussed his reasons for living abroad.
“It’s not about tax. That’s a serious part of it. I come back to England often enough not to miss it, to see the changes, to find some of the changes good,” he said.
“I paid my taxes at the time that I was earning a decent income, so I’ve already paid my due.”
Asked what would make him return to the UK, Sir Roger said: “Being able to afford a house in the country. I would come back like a shot.”
Speaking about Mr Cameron’s recent decisions in Europe, the actor, who said he had always been a Conservative, stressed the Prime Minister had his support and described members of the Tory party who opposed him as “traitors”.
“I think he’s doing absolutely wonderfully well, despite the opposition from many members of his own party. Traitors, I call them,” he said.
“I mean any hardliner within the Conservative Party who speaks out against their leader. You should support your leader.”
Sir Roger added that he did not know what he would do if the euro collapsed.
“I hope we can get rid of this terrible mess that the euro is in. Because having been advised that the euro was the currency of the future, anything I have is in euros.
“If the euro collapsed, what would I do? What will I do? I’d have to go to work. There’s not much work around for old-aged pensioners,” he said.
But he continued to say that he was glad Britain had kept the pound. “Well, I’m delighted about that. I would have been very upset if we’d had to take the Queen off our currency. They’d probably have to take her off the stamps and everything,” he said.
“I am British and I’m fiercely independent. And I think we should be independent... as Sean Connery is about Scotland...
“I jokingly said once that the reason the banks were in trouble, and particularly the Royal Bank of Scotland, was that Sean Connery had withdrawn all his money in cash.”