Former UK prime minister David Cameron says he is “worried” by the number of Britons leaving the country, at a time when the economy is under pressure over rising costs, high taxation and a Labour government that lacks the political will to cut benefits or curb immigration.
Speaking to an audience of investors at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Conservative peer Lord Cameron said Keir Starmer’s Labour government could do more to halt the number of people leaving.
“I am worried,” Lord Cameron said. “I want talented people to think, ‘I’m welcome to stay in London. I want to build a business in London.’ And that means that, yes, there are issues about how we tax people, but we’ve also got to make sure all the other things we’ve got going for us, whether it is our schools, our universities, the quality of life, you’ve got to work on all of those things.”
Official estimates put the number of Britons who have emigrated since the start of 2024 at 256,000, with research suggesting a significant number are heading to the UAE.
A recent Ipsos poll conducted by The National found the state of the economy and lack of safety held people back from moving to Britain. It is the UAE’s zero per cent income tax, emphasis on education and quality of life, that expatriates find hard to better.
“If we keep freezing tax thresholds, we’re going to see people at relatively low amounts of earnings go into effectively paying a 40 per cent rate of tax,” said Lord Cameron. “So [the Labour government] have got to think about that.
“One of the things the government needs to understand is, if you want to achieve something in politics, if it’s growth that you’ve decided is the priority, everything else has to be subservient to that goal. If you say, ‘I want growth, but by the way, I’m going to re-regulate the housing market’ … ‘I want growth, but here’s a whole lot of new regulation in the labour market’ … you won’t get the growth.”
Asked about the impact of Brexit on Britain’s current economic situation – a move that ultimately cost taxpayers £2,000 ($2,665) a year each – Lord Cameron said he regretted calling for an election that enabled the vote over EU membership, but pointed out the referendum had already been promised and that Brexit was ultimately the people’s choice.
“I ran the campaign to keep Britain inside the EU on a referendum,” the former Conservative leader said. “Ultimately, I lost that campaign and, obviously, I regret the fact that I lost."
He said he did not accept the judgment that his call for a snap election was reckless.
“Ultimately, you can’t govern a country and take people with you if you keep promising them a choice and don’t give them a choice,” he said.
