Sam Leith Sam Leith

Congratulations to Graham King, the asylum billionaire

Clearspring runs Napier Barracks, a former military barracks that is being used to house asylum seekers (Getty Images)

It’s always heartwarming to hear of a person who starts from humble origins and, through sheer entrepreneurial vim, makes something spectacular of himself, isn’t it? Such as story appears to be that of Graham King, founder and boss of Clearspring Ready Homes. It was reported yesterday that Mr King has this year crossed that all-important threshold from multi-, multi- millionaire to billionaire from his company’s contracts with the government to house asylum-seekers. He is known as the ‘Asylum King’ – and we can think of him, maybe, as a monarch among the wretched of the earth. 

Mr King’s fortune is reported to have jumped by 35 per cent in the last year alone.

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