In This Article:
One of Labour’s biggest former donors is considering quitting Britain over Rachel Reeves’s tax raid on non-doms.
Indian entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal, who moved to London in 1995, has told friends he will probably leave the country, according to the Financial Times.
One told the paper: “He is exploring his options and will take a final decision over the course of this year. There is a good chance he will cease to be a UK tax resident.”
The loss of Mr Mittal, a billionaire dubbed the “King of Steel”, would be embarrassing for the Labour Government at a time when it is attempting to reassure investors that Britain is open for business.
The 74-year-old and his family own nearly 40pc of ArcelorMittal, the second-largest steel producer in the world. Last year, the Sunday Times Rich List ranked him the eighth-richest person in the UK with a fortune of £14.9bn, even after a year when his net worth fell by £1.1bn.
Mr Mittal owns multiple properties in the UK, including several mansions on Kensington Palace Gardens, a London street nicknamed “Billionaires’ Row”.
The steel magnate bought a 55,000 sq ft mansion in the area for £57m from Bernie Ecclestone in 2004. Nicknamed the “Taj Mittal”, it contains marble from the same quarry as the Taj Mahal and includes Turkish baths, jewel-encrusted swimming pool, a ballroom and parking for 20 cars.
The industrialist was once the largest Labour donor, giving more than £4m to the party when Sir Tony Blair was prime minister. At the time, he said he was “a long-term supporter of the Labour Party and the work it has done in the UK to improve the overall prosperity”.
More recently he gave £10,000 to Boris Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign, and gave tens of thousands more to the Conservative Party after Labour was taken over by the hard Left under Jeremy Corbyn.
News of Mr Mittal’s plans came as one of Labour’s current biggest donors warned that the attack on non-doms was “totally wrong”.
John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of Phones 4u, said Ms Reeves’s decision was “wrong financially for the country, and it was wrong from a fairness point of view”.
He told Bloomberg Television: “It’s driving them back into places like Milan, Monaco and Dubai. We cannot afford to lose those moneymakers.”
New rules for non-doms are set to kick in from April 6. Under the current regime, non-doms can avoid paying British tax on foreign income and capital gains.
Changes were initially drawn up by Jeremy Hunt, the last Conservative chancellor, and announced shortly before last year’s general election. However, Labour said his plans did not go far enough and promised to “abolish non-dom status once and for all” by closing what it dubbed Tory “loopholes”.