UK government split over new ‘golden visa’ scheme to woo super-rich
Anti-corruption campaigners sound the alarm after previous programme was scrapped owing to dirty money
The Labour government has discussed reviving a “golden visa” scheme for wealthy individuals who come to the UK, four years after it was scrapped amid concerns about dirty money from Russia.
Business secretary Peter Kyle has told colleagues that Britain is in a “brutal fight for global talent” and argued that a system can be devised that prevents the pathway becoming a vehicle for oligarchs’ wives and crooks.
Government officials confirmed that the idea was on the table but it has met resistance from both the Home Office and the Treasury, which is sceptical that it would boost economic growth.
Under the proposal, individuals who invest £5mn in British businesses could become UK citizens in as little as five years. Campaigners against corruption and money laundering have sounded alarm about the idea.
At a meeting this month hosted by the Cabinet Office under conditions of strict secrecy, the government’s Global Talent Taskforce invited professional services firms, tax experts, economists and civil society groups to discuss the idea of reviving a fast track to British citizenship for investors.
In 2022, Priti Patel, the then Conservative home secretary, scrapped the previous “Tier 1 investor visa” as part of a crackdown on Russian money after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Closing this route is just the start of our renewed crackdown on fraud and illicit finance,” she said. The Home Office issued 2,581 investor visas to Russian citizens after the scheme was introduced in 2008.
One ally of Kyle said: “Peter believes it is possible to develop a scheme for people who genuinely want to invest in Britain and to have a social contract with people who want to come here with extreme wealth.”
A spokesperson for the government said: “We are determined to make the UK the best place to do business, whilst protecting our national security.” A government official briefed on the discussions said: “We are looking at options to attract investment.”
Immigration lawyers say that current visa routes are poorly suited to, for example, rich Americans fleeing the Trump administration and that this “cohort” needs some version of an investor visa.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think-tank that has strong links to the Labour government, believes it would be possible to design a scheme that addresses the risks of fraud. That could involve excluding foreign nationals from some countries.
Experts, who are opposed to reintroducing a similar visa and were invited to the meeting on June 10, say the idea has been developed in government over the past year.
The IPPR has been supported by law firm Mishcon de Reya to work up ideas for a new scheme to tempt high-net-worth individuals to the UK and solve what they deem a serious problem for UK start-ups accessing finance to scale up. Their report is due soon.
Steven Bostock, partner at Mishcon de Reya , said that the firm had seen “consistent client desire for an investor visa since the last scheme ended”.
Mishcon confirmed they had been at the June 10 meeting. “There is currently a gap in the UK’s immigration system for high-net-worth individuals who are willing to make substantial investments in the UK,” the firm said. “We think that such a scheme, designed carefully, would lead to a positive impact on the UK’s economy and encourage growth.”
But campaigners against corruption are dismayed. “This would be reputationally disastrous for the UK and would shred any credibility that the UK is serious about tackling dirty money,” warned Susan Hawley of Spotlight on Corruption.
The scheme as sketched out offers settled status in the UK after three years and citizenship after five years.
Tax experts at the meeting told the FT they gave “robust” feedback that reintroducing a route for “oligarchs and their wives” would represent serious backsliding in the fight against corruption.
One government insider said: “The Treasury is sceptical about whether it would do anything to boost growth. The idea isn’t going anywhere.”
Andy Burnham, the left-of-centre prospective prime minister, may also be wary of any scheme that rolls out the red carpet to super-rich foreigners.
Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford university, concluded in a paper last year that investor visas in high-income countries like the US and UK “often fail to deliver expected economic benefits”.
She said they often attracted “lifestyle migrants”, such as the families of Russian or Chinese oligarchs, who came to London to take advantage of schools, shopping and legal security, while their husbands continued making money in their home countries.
Officials swore attendees at the June discussion to secrecy. The FT has learnt that tax experts and others are concerned that their strong warnings at the meeting might not be enough to kill off what is still a live idea. “There are better ways to tempt overseas investors,” said one attendee.
Another said that any looser regime in the UK could open the world up to kleptocrats again: The EU had pressured member states to clean up similar visa schemes over the past few years to combat fraud and Australia also abandoned a similar visa route. Hawley said groups like hers fear a “domino effect” if the UK goes down this route again in order to attract rich individuals.
Groups invited to the June meeting included Transparency International and Spotlight, alongside wealth advisory firms including Mishcon de Reya, Withers and accountants Blick Rothenberg.