Starmer's Britain is good at only one thing: driving out the wealthy and ambitious

Telegraph

2 days ago

It doesn't lead the world in developing new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. It isn't breaking new ground in science, technology, or even in music, literature or fashion.
Still, Sir Keir Starmer's Labour Britain is at least leading the world in one respect. It has become better than anywhere else at driving out the wealthy, the young, and the ambitious. There is just one catch. The Government doesn't appear to have any ideas on how to stem the exodus, nor how to replace all the tax revenues that will leave with them.
The evidence that money and talent is fleeing Britain is becoming more alarming all the time. Guillaume Pousaz, Swiss-born billionaire founder of fintech giant Checkout, has become the latest to leave. We learned this week that he has shifted his tax residency from Britain to Monaco, following the decision by the Chancellor Rachel Reeve to abolish the non-dom rule that allowed wealthy foreigners to limit their tax bills in the UK.
He joins the likes of the billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and the senior Goldman Sachs banker Richard Goode in getting out of the country. Over the last year, an estimated 10,000 millionaires have left the UK, according to Henley & Partners, second only to Russia, and the real total may be even higher.
But it is not just a handful of the super-rich who are getting out. The young and ambitious are increasingly leaving for the Gulf States such as Dubai or Qatar, for Australia, where the youth mobility scheme allows them to live or work, or for the United States, if they can get a visa. Likewise, the 'Henrys', or 'High Earners, Not Yet Rich' are fleeing as well.
It is not hard to understand why. The non-dom crackdown has created one of the most punitive tax regimes in the world for foreigners. They are now subject not just to our income taxes, but to inheritance tax at 40 per cent on their global assets, as well as capital gains tax if they sell their company. Many simply have to leave or face financial ruin.
Likewise, frozen thresholds and tapered personal allowances now mean many successful self-employed or young professionals face marginal tax rates of 70 per cent or more on their earnings (and even more if they are crazy enough to live in Scotland).
Perhaps worse of all, the dire state of the public finances means that everyone knows there is far worse to come over the next two or three years, with taxes rising relentlessly to pay for soaring welfare bills and public sector wages. The only rational decision is to get out while you still can. A desperate Labour Chancellor – perhaps an Angela Rayner-type – may even impose an exit tax, as other countries have tried to.
It is catastrophic for any country to lose its wealthiest, most energetic, talented, ambitious, and hardest-working people. They drive investment, innovation, and entrepreneurship. More than any other group, they create the wealth that allows the country to flourish.
But it is especially catastrophic for Britain. The reason is simple. Over the last thirty years, we have narrowed our tax base, so that the Government is very dependent on a small group of people. The top 1 per cent now pay 28 per cent of the total for income tax, and the top 10 per cent pay 60 per cent of the total.
For capital gains tax, dividend taxes, and corporation tax the percentage will be even higher. As they leave, the revenue collected will collapse. Even worse, as the exodus gathers steam, the Government is doing precisely nothing to stop it. Any rational government, faced with losing 30 per cent of its tax revenue, would be frantically finding ways of persuading them to stay.
Instead, Labour is complacently watching them leave, as if it makes no difference. It is going to prove a very expensive mistake – because the UK will find it very hard to get all those people back once they have left.