Burnham must kill wealth tax talk now
The UK’s incoming prime minister Andy Burnham needs to kill speculation of a wealth tax immediately, warns the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, cautioning that hesitation alone is already pushing capital toward the exits.
Nigel Green of deVere Group’s comments come as Andy Burnham, who replaces Sir Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday, declined to rule out a levy on the assets of Britain’s wealthiest citizens during an interview with Gary Lineker, telling the podcast that people may eventually be asked for “a little more” and that fairness demanded difficult decisions ahead.
The deVere CEO comments: “A wealth tax that has not been proposed is already doing damage. Money does not sit around waiting for legislation. It moves the moment a government signals it is willing to go there, and Mr Burnham just signalled it.
“He needs to put this to rest today, not let it hang over Britain for months while capital quietly heads for the door.”
The timing could hardly be more sensitive. The UK lost an estimated 16,500 millionaires in 2025, one of the largest single-year outflows recorded anywhere in the world, and industry forecasts suggest that figure could double again in 2026 as the effects of the non-dom regime’s abolition continue to ripple through.
The UAE, Switzerland and Italy, among others, have all positioned themselves as beneficiaries of Britain’s loss, actively courting the capital and talent that London once took for granted.
Nigel Green continues: “History has run this experiment more than once, and the result never changes.
“France tried it and watched tens of thousands of its wealthiest residents leave before scrapping the policy.
“Sweden tried it and lost entrepreneurs and headquarters it never got back.
“Wealth is mobile in a way wages are not, and every government that has taxed it hard has ended up chasing capital that has already gone.”
He adds: “Britain is competing against countries that have made attracting global wealth a national priority, and every week this speculation continues is a week that competition swings further away from the UK.”
The deVere CEO argues the economic maths rarely works in the way proponents assume.
He says: “A wealth tax reads well on a policy paper and collapses on contact with reality. Tax accumulated assets and the people holding them start planning their exit immediately. What follows is not new revenue for the Treasury. It’s a shrinking base of investment, jobs and philanthropy, all disproportionately reliant on the very people this tax would target.”
Nigel Green warns the damage is already underway.
He says: “Family offices are having relocation conversations this week that would not have happened a year ago. Entrepreneurs are asking advisers whether Britain is still worth building in. None of that needs a wealth tax to pass. It only needs the idea to stay alive.”
He concludes: “Andy Burnham has a choice in his very first weeks as prime minister. Rule out a wealth tax now, or watch Britain’s record wealth exodus become his opening legacy.
“There’s no version of this where keeping the door open on a wealth tax helps Britain compete for capital.
“Every day it stays open, more of that capital walks through it.”