Jeremy Corbyn has been advised to allow the better-off to “become wealthier” amid fears of an exodus.
The warning from deVere Group’s chief executive, Nigel Green, comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today launches his official election campaign with a column in The Daily Telegraph in which he compares Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn to Stalin over his “hatred” of wealth creators.
Johnson said the Labour leader has taken a stance that demonises billionaires with a “relish and a vindictiveness” not seen since Stalin’s attitude to landowners following the Russian revolution.
Corbyn pledged to end “in-work poverty” and the need for food banks in response, insisting the party will deliver “real change” and that he will be a different kind of prime minister if elected on December 12.
But he has been warned about taking “swiping broadsides at the wealthy”, with many high-net-worth people “legitimately worried about the damaging impact of a Jeremy Corbyn-led government on their finances”, Green said.
“I believe we can realistically expect a Corbyn government would trigger an exodus of the country’s most successful and wealthiest individuals who contribute significantly both directly and indirectly to the British economy.
“Soaking the rich doesn’t work because these people, typically, have the resources to move to lower tax jurisdictions if the tax burden in the UK becomes too great. They are internationally mobile.
“Should these largely job and wealth-creating individuals emigrate – and according to our anecdotal evidence a high number very well could – government finances will suffer considerably because they contribute a disproportionately large amount to the state’s coffers.”
The deVere CEO added that “if Mr Corbyn is serious about having the better-off pay more tax, they should cut rates further and allow them to become wealthier.
“This would incentivise top achievers, who prop-up ‘The System’, to remain in the UK.”
However, this is unlikely to wash with the veteran Labour man.
Using a speech in Telford, Shropshire, today, he is expected to promise that “the politics I stand for is about sharing power and wealth with people who don’t have a lot of money and don’t have friends in high places.”
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