Nigel Farage has defended his plans to attract wealthy individuals to the UK with a £250,000 fee for 10 years of residency and a special tax regime, as Labour called it a “billionaires’ bonanza”.
In a press conference in London, the leader of Reform UK said he wanted to win back very wealthy people leaving the country, and encourage them to spend and create jobs in the UK.
Reform estimates 6,000 of the wealthiest people would pay the fee to exempt themselves from tax on international earnings and inheritance tax. The proceeds would be used to give a £600 dividend for the lowest paid workers.
Farage was accompanied by two of his wealthy donors and party officials: the efficiency unit chief, Zia Yusuf; and treasurer, Nick Candy, who has spoken of wanting to attract business people from Monaco to give money to Reform.
However, Dan Neidle, a tax expert, suggested the policy could cost the UK £35bn over five years in lost revenue, highlighting the tax gap left and arguing it would not get a high take-up, especially as no government could guarantee a policy would be in place for 10 years.
Farage rejected this analysis as “nonsense”, with Reform sources saying those paying the £250,000 “landing fee” would still pay tax on any UK earnings – just not overseas gains.
But Ellie Reeves, the Labour chair, said it was “quite simply a bonanza for billionaires”.
“Not only is this a golden giveaway to the rich, but experts warn this will leave a massive black hole in the country’s finances that working people will be left to pick up the bill for,” she added.
Farage said he thought Labour would end up adopting the policy to stem the flow of wealthy people leaving the UK.
Others have suggested it is a “Robin Hood” tax redistributing wealth, but the Reform leader said: “We are not stealing from the rich, we are encouraging them to come.”
Reform estimates this “Britannia workers’ dividend” could provide a tax-free annual payout of £600-£1,000 to roughly 2.5 million low-paid full-time workers, depending on uptake. The money would be delivered directly by HMRC at the end of each tax year.
In effect, Reform is proposing to sell exemption from the UK tax system – reinstating the abolished non-dom privileges in a simplified form but with a cash price attached.
The party says the fee is not a “golden visa” but a way of ensuring wealthy newcomers “immediately contribute to British society”.
Unlike Labour’s 2024 abolition of non-dom status, and the shift under former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt to a residence-based tax system for all new arrivals, Reform’s plan would restore tax breaks for the globally mobile– while simultaneously claiming to deliver for the British working class.
Under its lowest-uptake scenario – 6,000 exemptions a year – the scheme would generate £1.5bn, enough to fund a £600 tax-free bonus to 2.5 million workers. A higher-uptake scenario, with 10,000 cards, would raise £2.5bn and deliver £1,000 for each worker.
Only full-time workers in the bottom 10% of the income distribution would qualify, with payments issued automatically via HMRC.
Reform said the boost would disproportionately benefit workers in Wales, Scotland and the north-east of England – regions where a greater share of jobs are the bottom pay decile.
The party has yet to publish a clear threshold for who qualifies as a “high-net-worth newcomer” nor how the policy would be enforced or integrated into HMRC’s tax framework. No legislative draft has been released.
Since sweeping to power in more than 670 council seats in May and taking control of 10 councils and two mayoralties, Reform has emerged as a serious national contender. The party leads in multiple polls: a recent Sky/Ipsos tracker shows Reform on 34%, with Labour trailing at 25% and the Conservatives at just 15%.
The move is part of Farage’s latest attemptto position Reform as the party of working people, not through traditional wage policies or trade unionism, but via direct wealth transfers and blunt fiscal symbolism. The “Britannia Card” is his clearest move yet to dominate the “red wall” on economic terms.
Separately, the Reform UK leader said Israel and the US were right to attempt to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability by bombing it.
He also accused the attorney general, Richard Hermer, of being “frankly bordering on treacherous” for striking a deal to hand ownership of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and lease back the military base there, claiming this had hindered the US bombing mission against Iran.
Asked whether he supported the UK joining military action in Iran, Farage said: “I doubt they are going to ask for our help but they could do with our support.”
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