UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak overtook UK monarch King Charles in terms of personal fortune, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List. The list shows that the personal fortune of the prime minister and his wife Akshata Murty has soared by more than £120 million ($152 million) over the past one year to a total of £651m ($827 million), according to the Sunday Times.
King Charles’ wealth grew from £600 million ($762 million) to £610 million ($775 million) over the same period. In the report that accompanied the list, the newspaper claimed the UK’s mega rich are dwindling and highlighted that the UK’s “billionaire boom has come to an end”.
- Gopi Hinduja – £37.2bn
- Sir Leonard Blavtanik – £29.2bn
- David and Simon Reuben and family – £24.9bn
- Jim Ratcliffe – £23.5bn
- James Dyson and family – £20.8bn
- Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family – £17.2bn
- Idan Ofer – £14.9bn
- Lakshmi Mittal and family – £14.9bn
- Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family – £14.4bn
- John Fredriksen and family – £12.8bn
The list also marked the first time there was a drastic reduction in the number of billionaires as it fell to 165 from 177 in 2022.
British-Indian businessman Gopi Hinduja and his family topped the list with their total wealth of £37.2 billion ($47.2 billion), marking the largest fortune in the ranking’s history.
The top 10 of the 2024 Sunday Times Rich List also shows NRI tycoon of ArcelorMittal steelworks Lakshmi N. Mittal at No. 8, followed by Vedanta Resources’ industrialist Anil Agarwal at No. 23 with an estimated £7 billion.
Other Indian-origin billionaires on the 2024 list include textiles entrepreneur Prakash Lohia at No. 30 with an estimated £6.23 billion; retail majors Mohsin and Zuber Issa at No. 39 with £5 billion; and pharma chiefs Navin and Varsha Engineer at 58 with £3 billion. Among the top 100 richest Britons are brothers Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora at No. 65 with £2.682 billion and leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and family ranked 67th with an estimated wealth of £2.6 billion same as last year.
The list comprises 350 individuals and families and their combined wealth equals £795.361 billion, which is larger than the annual GDP of Poland.
Elton John, Paul McCartney, Lewis Hamilton and David and Victoria Beckham all appear in the annual survey. The minimum entry for the list of 350 this year was £350 million.
Paul McCartney became the first UK musician to become a billionaire.
The compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, Robert Watts, lamented that the billionaire boom of the UK has come to an end. “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List suggests Britain’s billionaire boom has come to an end. Many of our home-grown entrepreneurs have seen their fortunes fall and some of the global super rich who came here are moving away,” Watts said.
“Thousands of British livelihoods rely on the super-rich to some extent. We’ll have to wait and see whether we have now reached peak billionaire status, and what that means for our economy,” he further added.
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