Enda Brady: UK correspondent on the record number of wealthy Brits leaving the UK

Over in the UK, concerns have been raised over a new kind of brain drain as migration remains a consistent issue.

A total of 257,000 British nationals are now thought to have left the country last year, 180,000 more than the initial estimate of 77,000.

UK correspondent Enda Brady says rich-listers are among the high-profile Britons leaving, including steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal - who voiced displeasure with proposed tax changes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the Brady UK corresponds with us, helloween, dare.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hey, Heather, great to speak to you again.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So you're suffering your own brain drain apparently.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, and this is all self inflicted. So an awful
lot of very rich people are leaving the UK. The
big story of the week is it's budget day tomorrow
and much of what is coming has been trailed already,
So more taxes on big houses, taxing electric vehicles per
mile driven. Basically, Rachel reeves the Chancellor needs to get

(00:30):
serious money in a black hole of anywhere between forty
and sixty billion en Z dollars in public spending, depending
on which expert you speak to. That's a hell of
a black hole to fill. And what's happening is inheritance
tax will change as well. The super rich are getting very,
very worried about this and they are leaving in their

(00:53):
droves now. Over the weekend we found out that a
guy called Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's richest man, worth somewhere in
the region of about thirty to forty billion and Z
he has had enough and he's bailing out too. So
it's left to the rest of us to pay our taxes.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Now, what do you expect is going to happen in
budget day?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I think it'll be a tough budget. All the mood
music from labor people have been speaking to this week
is that this will be a budget that helps the
working families. But I'd be curious to see who they're
taxing is working families. So they're saying that if you
earn anything above forty pounds eighty kN z a year,
you're not a working person anymore, that you're somehow entering

(01:39):
the elite band. And if that's true, an awful lot
of people don't feel it. I can tell you that much.
We've still got inflation running at three point six percent here.
I think it's going to be a tough budget. But
Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer they need to get this
right because elections are looming in May. On the local front.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, So on the text thing, what are you expecting?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Well, so I said, I think the strange ones are
taxing electric vehicles per mile driven. I mean, we already
pay road tax, so why should I not be taxed
on a petrol vehicle I have? And my neighbor has
an EV and he must pay tax per mile driven.
I can see legal challenges on that. Perhaps. I think
people living in very big houses will be going up

(02:22):
a council tax band and paying more. I don't think
they're going to play with income tax, because that was
part of the manifesto they came in on, that they
would not raise income tax. But the phrase, and this
is hilarious. I even heard a radio show last week
with a Swedish author who had written a book called
smorgas Board about data Swedish recipes, and basically the phrase

(02:45):
being used is a small gas board of small tax rises.
So they're going to hit us everywhere basically.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Goodness. Yeah, And so tell me does this make Kystama's
position more precarious or not? What you read on that, I.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Think he's toast. From everything I've been hearing around Westminster
last ten days. There are moves afoot keep an eye
out for the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, and the feeling
is even the Times newspaper this morning is saying that
inside the Labor Party they're having a conversation now whether
they have a coronation for Wes that basically one candidate

(03:22):
is put up and he ousts Starmer, probably after the
male local elections which are likely to be disastrous for
Labor Reformer doing so well at the moment, I think
what likely to happen is Starmer will get past Christmas,
that Labor will limp towards these local elections, lose badly,
and then there will be the ousting of Starmer because

(03:43):
smart people in the Labor Party will think we need
a politician back in. God help him. He's a very
decent man. He's a very intelligent man. But he is
not a politician. He is a lawyer. And I think
in the world we live in now where Nigel Farage
just seems to be waltzing through interviews and going up
in the polls every day, he can say anything and
the most outrageous things, and people are just nodding and

(04:05):
agreeing with it, I find it very very strange.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, hey, thank you very much, Inda, really appreciate your time.
Mate Into Brady UK corresponding.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
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