Rubbish Check
Daily Mail Money · 5 October 2026
source“Billionaires worth £120bn quit Britain as Labour tax hikes spark exodus of the super rich”
R6/ 10
Spin-heavy
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Daily Mail's claim that "billionaires worth £120bn quit Britain" a 6/10 because the figure is the combined personal net worth of departing billionaires, not money or tax revenue that left the UK, and the article's sourcing is entirely from people who left or oppose the tax changes.
The Verdict
Spin-heavy. The headline's £120billion denominator conflates a handful of billionaires' total global net worth with capital flight from Britain, when most of that wealth (businesses, overseas holdings) was never taxable UK income to begin with. The piece also stacks quotes exclusively from affected billionaires and sympathetic commentators, Luke Johnson, Hugh Osmond, John Caudwell, Jack Hollyman, with no independent economist or Treasury figure weighing the actual fiscal impact, so the "disaster" framing goes unchallenged by anyone with a different read.
What actually happened
Figures from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed billionaires with £120billion to their names have left high-tax Britain since Labour came to power, with half the group leaving in the weeks before non-dom tax reforms took effect in April last year. The article names two of the largest individual departures and reports speculation that further tax rises in the October Budget could accelerate the trend.
Key facts
- The biggest single departure was Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who moved to Switzerland and Dubai with his £31billion fortune.
- Shravin Bharti Mittal, son of Sunil Bharti Mittal and heir to a stake in BT's biggest shareholder, left with an £18billion share of the family fortune.
- Hedge fund tycoon Chris Rokos, worth £3billion, is moving to Greece after paying £330million in tax last year, making him Britain's third-biggest taxpayer according to The Sunday Times.
- The reforms cited as the trigger include changes to non-dom status, which had previously let some individuals avoid tax on overseas income.
- An adviser at Alvarez & Marsal noted the same pattern occurred in 2024 and 2025 when non-doms left amid concerns over overseas businesses being brought within UK inheritance tax.
What to watch for
- Whether the £120bn figure gets reconciled against actual lost UK tax revenue once HMRC data is published, net worth and tax contribution are not the same number.
- The 28 October Budget: speculation is gathering that the Chancellor will raise capital gains tax to fund defence spending and cost-of-living measures, and advisers are already flagging talk of an "exit charge" to pre-empt further departures.
- Whether any government or independent economist response appears in follow-up coverage to balance the one-sided sourcing in this piece.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
