What Boris Johnson should do next

If you were rich, foreign and globally mobile, would you choose to move to the UK? The trend, it turns out, is the other way: according to migration consultants Henley & Partners, we’ve seen a net outflow of 12,000 millionaires since 2017, with 1,500 departures last year.

And it’s pretty obvious why. If tax is your top concern, a tightening of non-dom rules and the near-certain prospect of a Keir Starmer government abolishing non-dom status altogether would loom large. If you’re Asian, you may think Australia looks more welcoming. If you’re European and offended by Brexit, you might prefer Ireland or fashionable Portugal.

But actually we’d be mad not to make an effort to attract well-heeled incomers, unless they’re Russian. We may no longer believe in trickle-down, but it’s surely the case that the rich who settle here are also more likely to invest in UK businesses that generate prosperity for others. And we don’t want the reputation abroad of a demoralised, fractious country, a shadow of its past glory, whose public services are collapsing – even if that’s what, this winter, we are.

Prime ministers like to signal action by appointing ‘tsars’. What we really need is an upbeat Welcome the Wealthy Tsar – and maybe it’s the perfect job for Boris Johnson.

Brand genius

Returning to my Covent Garden lair after the new year break, I’m intrigued to see shoppers queueing in Neal Street to buy Birkenstock sandals, a brand (I read in GQ) that used to be favoured by ‘Teutonic pensioners and allotment owners’ but is now hot with celebrities and influencers. How so?

The magic sauce may be that the venerable German footwear-maker was acquired in 2021 by LVMH, the luxury goods conglomerate assembled by the French brand-marketing genius Bernard Arnault – who currently counts as the richest person in the world, with a fortune estimated at $200 billion.