TL;DR
- The “millionaire exodus” story started with one study which now admits it has no evidence
- The study was propelled to the national and global stage by parts of the UK press, who chose to extensively cover it despite the lack of evidence and warnings from experts against trusting it
- Several UK papers published misleading reporting about what the study actually said
- The UK government weakened its planned tax reforms on the superrich in response to the press-manufactured story
- The UK’s biggest press complaints body IPSO – an unapproved self-regulating system – must open an official investigation into the papers under its watch
- Failing that, the UK government must require newspapers to join an approved regulator
- What you can do: Use the online action below to demand corrections from the papers and write to your MP
Since 2024
about 30 news articles a day
have been published around the world
about an exodus of millionaires and billionaires fleeing taxes.
………………………..
The UK, we’re told, has had the worst of it thanks to the Labour government’s tax policies.
This coverage was almost entirely based on the claims of a single study, the Henley Private Wealth Migration report.
The study has now finally admitted it does not have the data to back up its claims.
The study was propelled to the national and global stage by parts of the UK press, who chose to extensively cover it, despite the lack of evidence and despite multiple warnings from experts against trusting it.
But the press didn’t just spread the study widely – some radically distorted it.
See what the press’s sources said.
And how the papers reported.
The source said:
“Brexit pulled the plug on millionaires.”
“The exodus of wealth is well underway and was doing nicely even before the imminent prospect of a Labour government headed by Sir Keir Starmer.”
The papers reported:
“Labour’s tax plans trigger exodus of millionaires from UK” – The Times
See more ▼
“Since Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves moved in next door to each other on Downing Street, thousands of millionaires have left Britain, new figures reveal” – Daily Express
“The UK has lost a millionaire every 45 minutes since Labour came to power according to new data, as experts said the exodus was being driven by Rachel Reeves’ controversial Budget”
– The Independent
The source said:
The millionaires leaving the UK have a wealth of $92 billion but:
“This does not necessarily mean that these high-net-worth individuals will bring all of this wealth with them when they move.
“Many will still keep much of their wealth with large banks and wealth managers abroad, and invested in global stock markets such as the NYSE, NASDAQ, HKEX, JPX.”
The papers reported:
“Britain will lose 16,500 millionaires this year, taking $90 billion of wealth with them. That’s according to a new report from Henley & Partners.”
– The Spectator
See more ▼
“A recent survey by Henley and Partners indicated that 16,500 high net worth people would leave this year, taking $91.8 billion with them.”
– The Telegraph
“Policy changes on tax and visas are driving capital abroad, with £66 billion in assets expected to leave, a migration study says”
– The Times
“Echoing the earlier figures from the Adam Smith Institute, Henley & Partners predicted 16,500 millionaires would leave the UK taking with them an estimated wealth of more than 90 billion dollars.”
– The Daily Mail
“The UK is forecast to lose a net 16,500 millionaires in 2025, the highest globally, with an estimated £68 billion in investable wealth departing, per provisional figures from the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report 2025” – Daily Express
“Rachel Reeves ‘fuelling £91.8bn exodus of millionaires’ from the UK” – Daily Express
The source said:
“This isn’t just about changes to the tax regime.
“It reflects a deepening perception among the wealthy that greater opportunity, freedom, and stability lie elsewhere.”
The papers reported:
“Millionaires are set to flee Britain in record numbers to escape Labour’s tax raids, a report has revealed.”
– This is Money
See more ▼
“Britain is set to lose a record 16,500 millionaires in 2025, as rising taxes push the country’s wealthiest residents to leave. … The primary reason for this exodus is the overhaul of the UK’s tax regime for the wealthy” – Daily Express
“The outflow accelerated last year when Rachel Reeves confirmed the abolition of non dom regime that allowed wealthy foreigners to live in the UK without having to pay tax on their overseas income and assets” – The Evening Standard
The source said:
“[T]he data does not yet support…” estimates on millionaire migration.
After years of reporting such estimates, the source finally stopped doing so following public scrutiny of its methodology.
The papers continued to use its numbers:
“More than 16,000 millionaires left the UK last year, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report survey, the highest exodus on record.”
– The Telegraph
See more ▼
“More than 16,000 millionaires left the UK last year, the highest exodus ever recorded in the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report.”
– The Scottish Mail on Sunday
What the source told us:
“We have never claimed that Labour tax policies were the sole or root cause.
“If papers such as the Telegraph, Times, Mail, decide to add their own layer on to that, and deliberately exclude from their story our standard reminder to them that these were the Conservatives’ tax changes, then I think your argument is with them not with us… We have consistently reported a net outflow of millionaires from the UK from 2016 (and not just since Labour took office last year).”
See their full response here.
In response to the manufactured narrative, the Labour government weakened plans to tax the superrich.
A recent HMRC review has confirmed the exodus of the press’s scaremongering has not materialised.
Despite this, and despite the Henley report’s admission that it does not have data to support the exodus claims, much of the press have continued to report the same fabricated story.
Reporting increased ahead of the Autumn Budget 2026.
They reported millionaire exodus claims from a “millionaire tracker” whose only evidence of an exodus was the abandoned claims from the Henley study. They reported that billionaire David Reuben, who has been resident in Monaco since 2014, moved to Monaco this past summer. They reported that billionaires were taking £120 billion out of the UK according to a Bloomberg report, even though this is inconsistent with Bloomberg’s own data.
The truth is
9 in 10 (88% of) millionaires in the UK
are proud to live in the UK, and 75% of them would pay more tax to help protect and strengthen the social, cultural, and economic foundations they value here.
What we’re all doing about all this
We’ve written to IPSO documenting years of breaches of the Editor’s code by leading UK papers, and urging it to conduct an unprecedented investigation.
To the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO),
We believe these documented breaches of Sub Clause 1 are sufficiently serious and systemic to constitute a “systemic failure”, to which IPSO may apply a Standards Investigation in accordance with its regulations.
Read our report to IPSO.
We’ve written to the Media Secretary and Chancellor, urging them to require newspapers to sign up to an approved press regulator if IPSO fails to act.
Dear Secretary Nandy and Chancellor Healey,
This is a do-or-die moment for the IPSO system, and a wake-up call for anyone concerned about how the UK protects its free press from the influence of media barons.
Read the open letter in the Byline Times.
(to be published soon)
Sign up to receive updates on all actions, concerning you, against tax injustice.
The author
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