£300bn wiped off wealth of world’s 2,000 billionaires

... but don’t worry, they’re still worth £6.66trillion

AROUND £ 300bn was wiped off the wealth of the world’s richest people last year – but they are still worth £6.66trillion.

As political uncertainty, trade tensions and volatile stock markets took their toll, the fortunes of the planet’s 2,101 billionaires shrank 4.3pc in 2018.

It was only the third year since the financial crisis that they have got poorer and suggests a tenyear boom may be ending.

But the megarich, such as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, need not worry. They are still worth 34.5pc more than five years ago, reveals an annual report by Swiss bank UBS and accountants PwC.

The staggering wealth has come as they are increasingly drawn into political wrangling on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the UK, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised to force billionaires to pay more tax. And Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle this month said ‘ billionaires shouldn’t exist’. Fears are mounting that Labour will slap higher taxes on the middleclass as well if it wins the General Election next month.

In the US, Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has proposed higher taxes on the rich.

But she faces competition from rival candidate Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire media tycoon. If he is successful in winning the Democratic nomination, it could pit him against fellow billionaire and former friend Donald Trump.

Advisers to the UK’s richest families have reported a surge in requests on how they might move countries, shift fortunes offshore or otherwise dodge new taxes.

Nigel Green, chief executive of de Vere Group, said: ‘There are real concerns Corbyn would increase inheritance taxes, income taxes, stamp duty and capital gains taxes, even roll out capital controls, and slash areas such as pensions tax relief.

‘We can expect a Corbyn government would trigger an exodus of the most successful and wealthiest individuals who contribute a disproportionately high amount both directly and indirectly to the British economy.’

But Josef Stadler, the head of UBS’s global ultrahigh net worth division, said the world’s rich are ambivalent towards political shifts in the UK. The bank gathered more than 50 of its billionaire clients in Zurich this year and, Stadler said: ‘They were quite sanguine. They are willing to invest because they believe in the UK’s rule of law.’

Faith in the country’s processes and court system overpowers any shortterm negatives, he added.

Billionaires are also taking Corbyn’s policies with a pinch of salt, Stadler said. ‘What people say before they get elected, and what they do afterwards, are two different pairs of shoes,’ he said.

A high number of the megarich are also involved in philanthropic giving, UBS said. Stadler said: ‘What would the world look like without billionaires? They are a different breed of people. They are masters of riskreward, and they’re not afraid of failure. I question whether our society would be as welloff without that innovation, and the jobs it creates.’