UK election: Britain’s rich race to protect their wealth from potential tax increases

Wealthy people in the UK, from foreign billionaires to City of London bankers, are rushing to shelter their money after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak surprised the country by calling a summer election.

Some are cashing in investments, paying off bills that may soon rise or leaving the UK entirely, according to interviews with more than two dozen high-net-worth individuals, who asked not to be named, and wealth advisers.

The ruling Conservatives and the opposition Labour Party have both pledged to scrap preferential tax treatment for non-domiciled residents – rich foreigners living in the UK, also known as nondoms. Labour leader Keir Starmer has additional plans to tax the wealthy, and polls show his party more than 20 points ahead.

“I have had previously hesitating clients go into panic mode,” David Lesperance, a Poland-based tax and immigration adviser for the ultra-rich, said on Sunak calling the July 4 vote. He “pulled the pin on the election grenade.”

The UK was expected to lose a net 3,200 high-net-worth individuals last year, the most in Europe and double 2022’s level, citizenship advisory firm Henley & Partners estimated. Britain’s reputation for legal and political stability has been rocked by the upheaval of Brexit and the chop-and-change of five different Tory Prime Ministers since 2016.

As well as losing ground to popular territories for the well-heeled such as Monaco, Dubai and Switzerland, it has also had to compete with European neighbours like Italy and Greece, which rolled out programmes to lure wealthy foreigners. The UK scrapped its so-called golden visa programme in 2022.