The Great British Exodus: Keir Starmer’s Populism Drains the UK

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Former Kyrgyz Prime Minister Djoomart Otorbaev warns that Labour’s populist policies are triggering a historic flight of capital and talent from Britain — as high earners, investors, and innovators flee punitive taxation and political short-sightedness.

By TRH Foreign Affairs Desk

New Delhi, October 26, 2025 — Djoomart Otorbaev, Former Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic, claimed that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is destroying his country — slowly, systematically, and with a smile.
By injecting populism into the very religion of British politics, Otorbaev argued, his Labour government has begun dismantling what once made Britain great: meritocracy, responsibility, and ambition.

In the name of “fairness,” Starmer’s government has chosen to appease the least productive corners of society — those dependent on welfare, voting Labour to preserve subsidies. “But fairness, properly understood, is not about penalizing success to sustain dependency. It is about creating opportunity. And on that count, Britain is failing — profoundly,” asserted former Kyrgyz Republic Prime Minister in a note shared on LinkedIn.

The flight of Britain’s wealth creators

The result of this misguided populism is now visible in a single word: exodus. “The very individuals who built the British economy — entrepreneurs, financiers, innovators — are leaving. Not just with their wealth, but with their networks, philanthropy, and job-creating ecosystems,” he added.

A recent Freedom of Information request by Wealth Club revealed a staggering truth: the richest 1% of Britons — roughly 500,000 taxpayers — contributed £93.8 billion in taxes in 2023/24, one-third of all income tax collected. The top 100,000 alone pay nearly a fifth of the national total. These are precisely the people Starmer’s policies are driving out, argued the ex-PM of Kyrgyz Republic.

According to Henley & Partners’ Private Wealth Migration Report, 2024 saw 10,800 millionaires leave the UK — the largest outflow ever recorded — with £66 billion in private wealth departing alongside them. London, once the capital of global capital, is now haemorrhaging the very class that sustained it, he added.

Populism’s economic cost

The abolition of the centuries-old non-domiciled tax regime, a cornerstone of Britain’s international competitiveness, was the breaking point. Designed to attract global talent by taxing foreign residents only on UK income, it made Britain a magnet for investment. Starmer’s team scrapped it under the banner of “equity.” The result? Capital flight on a historic scale, he suggested.

Other nations moved swiftly to seize the opportunity. Italy rolled out a €100,000 flat tax for wealthy expats. Switzerland expanded its lump-sum tax schemes. Portugal reopened its golden visa program. The UAE simply unfurled a red carpet. “Britain, meanwhile, is punishing its best and celebrating mediocrity,” argued the analyst from Kyrgyz Republic.

The politics of envy, the economics of loss

Critics dismiss this trend as overblown — “only 0.6% of millionaires are leaving,” they say. But it’s not about the number; it’s about mass. “When a founder, fund manager, or family office relocates, they take with them an entire ecosystem: employees, service providers, charities, and influence. Each departure drains the nation of capacity and confidence,” asserted Otorbaev.

The politics of envy has turned into the economics of loss, he said: adding: “You cannot fund public services with disappearing taxpayers. You cannot build prosperity on resentment. And you cannot grow an economy when the people who build it have left.”

Britain’s historic strength lay not in punishing the successful, but in empowering everyone to succeed. Starmer’s Britain, tragically, is unlearning that lesson, he added.

If this course continues, the “Great British Exodus” may soon become not just a metaphor — but an obituary for ambition itself.

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