The Media 'Manufactured' Millionaire Exodus from UK, Campaigners Tell IPSO

The publications in question said the study blamed the Labour Party’s electoral victory for kicking off the exodus in 2024. But the study – even if their data is discredited – said it started with Brexit.

The publications said the study warned that migrating millionaires would take £66 billion out of the UK with them. But the study said they would not do so.

The publications said the study determined that millionaires were leaving because of tax. But the study said tax was only one of several reasons.

Even the publisher of the study thought the publications were “deliberately” spinning the study’s findings:

“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).”

The publications’ misleading reporting was repeatedly cited by MPs and Lords in parliamentary debates.

In response to the manufactured narrative, the Labour Government weakened plans announced by the Conservatives to reduce the special tax break we give to wealthy individuals who live in the UK but who are allowed to pay tax as though they live abroad – ie, “non-doms”.

A recent HMRC review has confirmed the exodus of the press’s scaremongering has not materialised. Despite this, and despite the Henley study’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.

Some papers have continued to use the study’s now-abandoned claims unashamedly.

The wealth exodus narrative has continued to feature prominently in reporting, with coverage increasing ahead of the Autumn Budget.

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 nine 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.

Astonishingly, despite the fact this inaccurate coverage has been exposed in the public domain for many months, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which oversees most of these publishers, has not lifted a finger to investigate or sanction the publishers responsible.

Now, in the absence of any proactive action from IPSO, we are directly calling on the body to launch a full standards investigation to get to the bottom of it.

IPSO says it can only investigate when publishers have been responsible for “serious and systemic” breaches of the code.

The papers’ misleading of the UK public with these inaccuracies manifestly meets that threshold, and a detailed report documenting the papers’ misleading reporting has now been shared with IPSO.