Actor and television presenter Ross Kemp said he would make financial education compulsory for schoolchildren if he were Chancellor, arguing that practical knowledge about money is essential after sharing details of his upbringing, career earnings and pension planning.
Kemp, 61, who rose to prominence in the early 1990s playing Grant Mitchell in BBC soap EastEnders before moving into award-winning documentary work, said lessons on money should be taught in a way that makes the subject "liquid and interesting." He told This Is Money and the This Is Money podcast that his parents were "war babies" and that scarcity in his childhood — including strict attention to food waste and portioning — shaped his approach to finances.
Kemp described a range of early jobs and tight budgets that preceded his television success. While training at drama school in London, he said he and a friend survived on three tins of tuna mixed with cornflakes and mayonnaise for a week. After nearly a decade on Albert Square he left EastEnders for ITV in 1999 under what he called a "golden handcuffs" arrangement, which he said paid him about "£1 million a year." He said he paid roughly 50 percent in tax that year and could not claim many deductions as an actor.
Despite the higher earnings, Kemp said he has diversified his work, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic, taking on documentaries and presenting roles such as the BBC One gameshow Bridge of Lies. He is also known for the BAFTA-winning Ross Kemp On Gangs series and appeared on Who Do You Think You Are?, where he learned his grandfather survived the sinking of the SS Duchess of York during the Second World War.
Kemp said he made a number of financial decisions based on experience. He described buying a convertible as his biggest money mistake because of rapid depreciation. Conversely, he cited buying his first house near Brentwood, Essex, within the first year of EastEnders as his best financial decision. He said the property has doubled in value and is now worth more than £1 million, though he added he believes a home "should never be an investment" and that his circumstances explain why he has kept it.
On inheritance and wealth transfer, Kemp was blunt. Asked whether he would pass his money down, he said, "No, certainly bloody not," adding that he worked hard for his assets and paid substantial taxes. He also said many very wealthy people he has met had either received financial help or had accumulated wealth through illegal means, a comment he used to question how well such people sleep at night.
Kemp said pensions are important and that he has been paying into one since he was young, noting his varied early employment included working in pizza parlours, as a plasterer’s mate and other manual jobs. He said that as a freelancer he has paid what he could into his pension in years he could afford it, and he urged people to consider what a state pension might be worth in decades to come.
He described family as his primary financial priority. Kemp is a married father of four, with two sons aged 14 and 10 and two daughters aged seven, and said he has saved for them. He related a recent episode where his mother admonished his children for leaving food on their plates, a habit she said she could not tolerate when she and Kemp’s brother were growing up.
Kemp is the face of the Pay Your Pension Some Attention campaign, which aims to increase public engagement with retirement planning. He has also spoken about changing television economics and the need for freelancers and performers to diversify income streams.
Kemp declined to characterise any single year as the best purely on financial grounds, saying the 1999 ITV deal was lucrative but that long-term security came from varied work and prudent choices. He recounted an anecdote about being paid £500 for a role in Ricky Gervais’s 2005 sitcom Extras, noting a neighbourly connection to Gervais but stressing the different financial outcomes from various projects.
Kemp’s comments join a wider conversation about financial literacy, taxation and the role of personal responsibility in retirement planning. He framed compulsory money education as a practical reform to prepare young people for real-world financial decisions, rather than a purely academic subject. The Pay Your Pension Some Attention campaign’s materials and Kemp’s interview are available online through the campaign’s website and the This Is Money podcast.