While more balanced reporting noted the key drivers, Brexit, economic instability, the weak pound, a sluggish post-2008 recovery, and tax changes under Tory and Labour governments, the right-wing press chose a different path.
London has lost more millionaires than any city in the world, except Moscow.
The latest World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2025 by international wealth advisors Henley & Partners in collaboration with New World Wealth, confirms the capital lost 11,300 millionaires in 12 months. This includes 18 centimillionaires, someone with a net worth of £78 million or more, and two billionaires. London now ranks sixth globally, having been overtaken by Los Angeles.
The story made headlines across the media. But while more balanced reporting noted the key drivers, Brexit, economic instability, the weak pound, a sluggish post-2008 recovery, and tax changes under Tory and Labour governments, the right-wing press chose a different path.
Take the Conservative Post. “UK capital loses more rich residents than anywhere else on Earth, second only to Moscow – as Labour’s high taxes and falling pound blamed for exodus,” read the subheading.
The piece fixates on Labour’s overhaul of the non-dom tax regime, that allowed international millionaires to live in the country while paying lower taxes.
“The crisis deepened last week as Labour scrapped the UK’s centuries-old non-domiciled tax regime, which previously allowed wealthy foreigners to shelter their global wealth from British taxes by paying a flat fee starting at £30,000,” it continued.
But don’t expect any mention of Brexit. In fact, ConHome ran the entire piece without naming it once. Odd, given that culture secretary Lisa Nandy explicitly pointed to Brexit as a primary reason for the millionaire exodus.
Speaking to Sky News, she said:
“The report points to a variety of factors that have led to that, most specifically Brexit, and one of the things that we’re committed to doing as a government is making sure that we get a far better deal with the European Union that make sure that we can continue to support British business.”
She also noted the damage done to creative industries, including UK-EU touring artists.
Meanwhile, the Express (or as some call it, the Brexpress) spun the story as a blow to Labour’s Rachel Reeves, with the headline:
‘Disaster for Rachel Reeves as 11,300 millionaires flee UK.’
The report grudgingly acknowledged the exodus began around 2014 and blamed tax hikes, Brexit, and the pound’s decline. One wonders which party was in power for the past decade?
The Telegraph deployed a similar deflection strategy, pinning the blame on inheritance tax hikes and non-dom reform. Brexit only appears deep in the article, with lawyer Matthew Braithwaite admitting:
“There were tweaks to the non-dom regime in 2017 which made it harder, as well as Brexit. The way people can migrate to the UK has become complicated.”
Then there’s GB News, which upped the drama by wheeling out Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers and former Conservative donor. He declared millionaires “don’t need London anymore” and boasted about splitting his time between Spain and Dubai to avoid his money “going to the Treasury.”
And this is from the man who once refused to take down a giant “Bollocks to Brexit” sign from his London office and threatened to go to jail over it.
But yet again, not a word about Brexit in GB News’ report.
Also predictably missing from these narratives is how the UK’s financial watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility, has estimated that Brexit would wipe 4 percent per annum from the UK’s economy in the long run, as a result of an increase in non-tariff barriers on UK-EU trade.
As for rich people taking their money—and their taxes—elsewhere? Surely the penny must be finally dropping for Brexiteers, they’re just too stubborn to admit it.
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