Billionaire property investor and Newcastle United shareholder David Reuben has left Britain for Monaco, becoming the latest wealthy individual to depart amid an exodus linked to Labour’s tax policies.
Mr Reuben, who is also overseeing £1billion worth of restoration projects involving London landmarks, moved to Monaco this summer. The principality has no tax on income, capital gains or inheritance.
The 88-year-old has an estimated fortune of almost £28billion, shared with his brother and business partner, Simon.
He is the latest billionaire to leave under the Labour Government, which has raised taxes since taking office two years ago and is expected to add further pressure on taxpayers in next month’s Budget.
Last week, Chancellor John Healey acknowledged that the Government needed to address the continuing departure of Britain’s wealthiest residents.
However, speaking at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Mr Healey indicated that capital gains tax could rise next month. He pointed out that Britain currently has the lowest rate among the European members of the G7.
Those remarks risked causing further concern among high-net-worth individuals in Britain, following tycoon Sir Peter Lampl’s decision to relocate to the United States. Sir Peter had blamed London’s traffic for his move.
The financier, who founded the Sutton Trust charity, criticised London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan over cycle lanes, low-traffic neighbourhoods and other measures he described as “anti-car”. He said the policies had made it difficult to travel quickly into the City.
David Reuben, right, pictured with his brother and business partner Simon, is leaving Britain for Monaco
Mr Reuben’s move follows that of Chris Rokos, the founder of Rokos Capital Management, who said earlier this month that he was preparing to relocate to Greece.
Mr Rokos has an estimated fortune of £3billion and paid approximately £330million in tax during the latest financial year. Earlier this year, he also pledged £190million to the University of Cambridge in what was believed to be one of the largest donations of its kind in recent years.
Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal is also among the wealthy figures to have left Britain, having moved to Switzerland.
Former chancellor Rachel Reeves abolished the “non-dom” tax status last year. The arrangement had allowed wealthy individuals to pay UK tax only on income generated in Britain.
The Reuben brothers were previously reported to have held non-dom status, and the removal of the regime has been partly blamed for the increasing number of wealthy people moving overseas.
Born in Mumbai, the self-made brothers moved to Britain as teenagers and attended a state school in north London. They began their careers as metal traders and carpet importers.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, they traded aluminium in Russia. They later generated more than £6billion by selling stakes in Global Switch, the IT infrastructure company.
Earlier this month, economists warned that the Treasury could feel the impact after the next self-assessment tax returns are submitted, particularly if “some very big UK taxpayers” have moved their assets or residency offshore.
The Government’s efforts to balance the books have also become more difficult as a sell-off in the bond market pushed the cost of government borrowing to a 28-year high.
Since coming to power in 2024 the Labour Government has hiked taxes and could continue to do so in next month’s Budget as Chancellor John Healey suggested capital gains tax could rise
Simon French, of Panmure Liberum, said: “One of the challenges with analysing UK tax data is that these high-profile HNW [high net worth] departures do not yet show up in the data.”
‘But next February could be quite the shock for fiscal headroom if the big self-assessment returns [for January] come in much softer than forecast as a result of some big UK taxpayers moving offshore in recent times.’
Manchester United’s outspoken owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said he had lost confidence in Britain this month and was unsurprised the super-rich were being driven from its shores.
Sir Jim, who left Britain for Monaco in 2020, warned the decline was down to Labour’s failure to tackle welfare and immigration and blamed high taxes.
And he said no politician was ‘tough enough’ to do something about it and act in the best interests of the country ‘instead of their party’.
‘Nobody’s tough enough to deal with the immigration problem. Nobody’s tough enough to deal with the benefits problem. But somebody needs to do it or it ends in a bad place,’ he said.
Also highlighting ‘the crime on our streets’, Sir Jim, who made his fortune in the energy and chemicals sector, said: ‘The UK was a fantastic place with the greatest empire in the world. We won two world wars. We were good, honest folk,’ warning it was now ‘difficult to see how we could arrest’ the decline.
He also slammed the government’s failure to exploit the UK’s own oil and gas supplies and allow and encourage new domestic oil and gas production as ‘insanity’.
A Brexit supporter said to be worth £17billion, Sir Jim has previously drawn criticism for saying the UK had been ‘colonised by immigrants’ and said Britain could ‘run out of gas’ this winter ‘in a cold spell’ because gas storage was so low.
