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One of Britain’s richest men quits the UK - THE TELEGRRAPH
One of Britain’s richest men has quit the UK after three decades as Rachel Reeves prepares a fresh tax raid at her Budget this week.
Lakshmi Mittal, the billionaire steel magnate who is worth more than £15bn according to the Sunday Times Rich List, is said to have moved his tax residence from the UK to Switzerland and will spend most of his time in Dubai.
The Indian-born tycoon is the latest high-profile entrepreneur to abandon Britain in response to Labour’s tax treatment of the super-rich.
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Mr Mittal earned the nickname “King of Steel” after building a vast fortune through his stake in ArcelorMittal, the world’s second-largest steelmaker. The 74-year-old and his family own nearly 40pc of the company.
On taking over his family business in his early 20s, Mr Mittal quickly expanded the company through a series of acquisitions, turning it into a major global steel producer.
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ArcelorMittal, which is headquartered in Luxembourg, employs more than 125,000 workers in more than 60 countries, including Britain where it produces specialist products including chain-link fencing and metal wires.
Since moving to London in 1995, Mr Mittal has bought up some of the country’s most expensive properties, including several mansions on Kensington Palace Gardens, a London street nicknamed “Billionaires’ Row”. The businessman paid £57m for a 55,000 sq ft mansion, known locally as the Taj Mittal, on the street in 2004.
The sprawling property, which Mr Mittal bought from the former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, was built using marble from the same quarry as the real Taj Mahal and includes Turkish baths, a jewel-encrusted swimming pool, a ballroom and parking for 20 cars.
The billionaire is understood to have no plans to sell the estate, according to The Sunday Times.
Mr Mittal is also a former Labour donor, having given the party more than £5m when it was under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. He also owns a stake in London football club Queen’s Park Rangers, and his family has donated millions of pounds to good causes.
It first emerged that Mr Mittal was planning to leave Britain in March this year, ahead of Labour’s end to the non-dom regime. Under the previous regime, residents with non-domiciled tax status could avoid paying British tax on foreign income and capital gains.
Earlier this year, Mr Mittal bought a Baroque-style mansion in Dubai’s Emirates Hills, a gated community dubbed the “Beverly Hills of the Middle East” for a reported $200m (£153m).
He has also started buying up tracts of land on the Naïa Island development, which is currently being built off the United Arab Emirates’ coast.
His departure will be embarrassing for the Government on the eve of the Chancellor’s Budget. Ms Reeves is expected to announce a raft of tax rises to balance the books but has insisted she wants to do more to boost Britain’s stagnating economy.
Mittal’s exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures that have included Nik Storonsky, the founder of Revolut, and Herman Narula, the £2.5bn tech chief executive.
Labour has been criticised over its erratic policy-making in the run-up to the Budget. Ms Reeves had been rumoured to be weighing up an exit tax which would charge 20pc on the gains of wealthy individuals if they chose to leave the country, but dropped the plans over fears it would cause an exodus of millionaires.
A spokesman for ArcelorMittal declined to comment.
