Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is considering leaving the UK because of the Labour government’s abolition of the ‘non-dom’ tax regime. This confirms that Keir Starmer’s politics of envy is successfully destroying the British economy.
Mittal would join tens of thousands of millionaires and billionaires – British and foreign – who have already abandoned Britain to avoid paying even more tax: all of them ranked among the 1 per cent of British residents, contributing 29 per cent of all the taxes raised by HMRC.
These tax exiles had been willing to pay fair taxes, but many baulked at Starmer’s decision not only to tax their offshore income but also their foreign-based pensions and trusts. Worse, Starmer’s increase of capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes and now the threat of a confiscatory wealth tax is the final straw. Some estimate that more than 100,000 millionaires are planning to flee Britain. Tax lawyers and accountants describe themselves as overwhelmed by rich clients anxious to leave Britain completely by the end of the month to deny HMRC any more money.
Truly, Britain is entering a dark age, reminiscent of the grim 1970s when Harold Wilson’s socialist economy sparked a self-destructive brain drain.
All of those wealthy taxpayers have an enviable choice of destinations welcoming the super-rich. A few choose the traditional tax havens in Switzerland and Monaco, but many more head to Italy, Portugal and Greece. All have enticed the British with low levels of tax in return for bringing their wealth. Florence is packed with Brits. Dubai, a long-term favourite for tax exiles, has already attracted thousands of British subjects.
The financial loss to Britain is colossal. Not only does the UK lose the income taxes the rich always paid, but the country also misses out on their expenditure in London and the resulting VAT. Restaurants, shops, home designers, car showrooms, taxis and so much more, all lose the millionaires’ daily spending. Lawyers, accountants and other professionals who serviced their businesses will also all be out of pocket. Offices and homes suddenly stand empty. Worst of all, theatres and galleries that relied on the super-rich’s philanthropy find their begging bowls empty.
London is already, on some nights, a ghost city. Thanks to a disinterested mayor and Labour councils uninterested in culture, the capital’s nightlife has been decimated. Nightclub takings are down, music bars and pubs are closing, and the best chefs have followed the rich to foreign cities.
Who would start a business in Britain when threatened with high taxes and the draconian trade union-designed Employment Bill? Entrepreneurs, the heartbeat of vibrant Britain and the source of wealth creation, are welcomed in Europe and elsewhere. Why should they stay in Britain to be slaughtered by hard-left socialists?
Read the Guardian or listen to radio chat shows and you’ll hear the Polly Toynbees of the world cheering the exodus of those unwilling to lose even more of their wealth. But no one ever asks those, like Labour MP Clive Lewis, who demand wealth taxes, how much more tax he and his supporters are personally prepared to pay to compensate for the loss of income from the exiles.
Nor, in the aftermath of Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement, did BBC journalists and Sky properly question her emergency budget by asking about the disastrous collapse of business confidence since Labour’s election win. Instead, the BBC focused on Labour’s plans to reduce welfare benefits. Whenever their supporters are asked how benefits would be financed with dwindling tax income, they reply: ‘More taxes on the rich.’ But the rich have voted with their feet. Predictably, they are abandoning the madness of socialist confiscation.
The immediate cause of the problem lies in the Labour party’s complete ignorance of business – and hatred of ‘profits’ among Labour ministers. Starmer’s cabinet lacks ministers who have actually been employed by a commercial enterprise to earn a profit. Our Chancellor, ‘Rachel from Accounts’, doesn’t understand aspiring profit-makers. And our Business Secretary – who is not even a solicitor – made a fool of himself lecturing Amazon on how to run a business.
Truly, we are heading towards a new dark age without any hope of finding a saviour.
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