Sunday Times Rich List Exposes How Worried Mega-Wealthy Are About Jeremy Corbyn
The prospect of a Jeremy Corbyn-led government is leading Britain’s richest to move assets and businesses overseas to preempt what some are calling “Corbygeddon”, according to reports.
One in 10 of those prepared to speak on the Sunday Times Rich List said they were taking moves to protect their wealth from tax increases on income and inheritance, including moving assets offshore, should Labour take power.
The Sunday Times said one tax expert had helped 10 people worth more than £500 million or more leave the country, while millionaire Alfie Best told the paper he would move his £285 million fortune out of the UK were Corbyn to become prime minister.
“How could I run the risk of leaving money here?” he added.
Theresa May’s Conservative Party would be on course for its lowest vote share in history at 19% according to a poll in a Sunday newspaper, while Labour would become the largest party by 137 seats.
Corbyn said the Rich List was a “stark reminder of the grotesque inequality that scars our society”.
He added: “Labour will reprogramme our economy, so it stops just supporting a tiny few at the top, and starts to reward the many, who do the work, create the wealth, and pay their taxes.”
Leading the Rich List are the Hinduja brothers Sri and Gopi, the magnates who were said to have amassed a £22 billion fortune, more than £3 billion ahead of David and Simon Reuben.
In third is Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of petrochemicals firm Ineos, who fell from first place after a reported £2.9 billion drop to £18.15 billion.
The Equality Trust pledged to write to the 1,000 individuals and families included in the list, calling for them to support higher taxes in “a nation of Ferraris and food banks”.
Executive director Dr Wanda Wyporska said: “In our grossly unequal UK, we are seeing the fabric of society ripped to shreds as the gap between us grows ever wider.”
The newspaper’s list features a record 151 billionaires with a combined wealth of nearly £525 billion, a 9.2% rise on last year.
Meanwhile, Sir Philip Green is estimated to have lost his billionaire status with the retail tycoon’s fortune believed to have halved in a year because of a pension black hole in his empire.
The Sunday Times Rich List has his fortune free-falling £1.05 billion in a year to £950 million.
But the plummet still places Sir Philip and wife Tina at 156th on the list, down from joint 66th some 12 months earlier.
The Arcadia Group – which includes Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins – was valued as worthless in this year’s list, as the company copes with a pension debt which hit £565 million.
The couple’s stake in the company was last year valued at £750 million, while the compilers also removed £300 million from their worth to allow the shoring up of the deficit.
With his wealth peaking at almost £5 billion in 2007, it is the first time in 17 years that Sir Philip has not been listed as a billionaire.
Robert Watts, who compiled the list, said he struggles to envisage the tycoon returning to the “upper echelons”.