Last week a number of newspapers reported that steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal was considering leaving the UK following the Chancellor’s crackdown on so-called non-doms. This followed a report in January by New World Wealth that claimed the UK had lost more than 10,000 millionaires in the past year.

The coverage of these announcements has been framed in a way that is implicitly critical of government policy. The argument goes that these individuals both create and spend wealth in the country where they choose to live, and that we will all therefore be worse off following their departure.

There may well be some truth in this, and it is regrettable that successful people choose to depart for foreign shores… But how regrettable?

I am surprised that there seems to be very little criticism of the departing millionaires themselves. But if we take a step back and ask why they’re leaving it is hard not to conclude that their primary motivation is self-interest and the wish to pay less, or perhaps no more, tax.

It is as if they are saying “we’ve done our bit for the UK by being here and growing our businesses, you’ve been lucky to have us, and we owe you nothing”. Really?
Surely this is to overlook all of the benefits the UK has afforded these people, both homegrown and non-dom, as they have spent time living and working here.

Would they have been as successful if they hadn’t benefited from the UK’s workforce, and if they hadn’t sold their goods and services to UK consumers? Would they have been as successful without the relative political stability, democratic norms and culture of tolerance of the UK? Would they have been as successful if they hadn’t had access to the UK’s educational and legal systems?

Would they have enjoyed the same standard of living if they had been based elsewhere? Or the richness of the country’s culture and heritage? Or even the same climate?

Right now the country faces a degree of economic stress which, frankly, is as much down to global forces and the after effects of Covid as it is the short-term decisions made by politicians. So for these people to decide this is the time to scuttle off somewhere else is pretty lamentable.

And let’s pause and think for a moment about who these people are… Millionaires and billionaires. I find myself asking the question: what is it that these people are going to have to go without by staying in the country where they built their success and wealth? Will the tax they save even make them any happier?

In an interview last year Phones4U billionaire, John Caudwell, said, “I would not move for taxation purposes from the UK at all. I love the UK, I’m patriotic, and I believe I have to pay my fair share of tax, in order to help the poorer citizens of this country.”

I agree with Caudwell and to the leavers I say, “Goodbye and good riddance!”