Sunday Times Rich List: Britain’s Billionaire Exodus - The Sunday Story
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
This year’s Sunday Times Rich List offers a revealing snapshot of modern Britain’s fortunes, from the Gallagher brothers returning after their sell-out comeback shows, to David and Victoria Beckham officially joining the billionaire club. But beyond the celebrity headlines lies a much bigger story: Britain’s accelerating wealth exodus, as billionaires, investors and entrepreneurs increasingly move overseas. What’s driving the rich out of Britain and what could it mean for the country’s future?
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Guest: Robert Watts, Rich List compiler, The Sunday Times.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Producer: Dave Creasey.
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Read more: The Sunday Times Rich List 2026 revealed
Illustration: Emanuel Santos for The Sunday Times Magazine
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From The Times and the Sunday Times, this is the story on Sunday. |
| 0:06.0 | I'm Manvine Rana. |
| 0:11.8 | For Robert Watts, who compiles the Sunday Times Rich List, there was one phone call, |
| 0:17.8 | the 15 billion-pound phone call, as he calls it, that brought what's happening to |
| 0:23.2 | the super rich in this country into sharp focus. |
| 0:27.4 | Lakshmi Mittau topped the Sunday Times rich list for eight years, more than anyone else, |
| 0:33.0 | Indian-born metal baron who moved to the UK in the mid-90s and became sort of almost symbolic of |
| 0:40.8 | the global super rich coming to London. |
| 0:47.6 | The phone rings and it's someone sitting in an office in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, who's |
| 0:53.9 | very close to him, and was able to |
| 0:56.7 | confirm that he's not a British citizen and has never been. I was advised that he had joined |
| 1:05.6 | this exodus of wealthy people leading the UK after more than 30 years here and moved to Switzerland |
| 1:12.8 | and bought up a big chunk of Dubai as well. |
| 1:15.7 | As a result, Lakshmi Meadow and his £15 billion plus wealth |
| 1:21.3 | drops out of the Sunday Times Rich List. |
| 1:24.4 | And he's not the only one. |
| 1:26.6 | Among the fascinating revelations from this rich list, |
| 1:30.0 | from the net worth of the beckhams to the Gallagher's, this year one clear picture is emerging. |
| 1:36.7 | The super rich are leaving Britain and fast. You get this silly patter of stories over the last two years, so-and-so's off to |
| 1:45.8 | Dubai, so-and-so's off to Switzerland, and it kind of washes over you. No one has really |
| 1:50.5 | sort of put it together. I suppose the Sunday Times Rich List will be the first time we start |
| 1:54.0 | to get a complete picture. And we have. It's pretty bleak. 30% of the total wealth on the Sunday Times Rich list this year |
... |
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