A crypto billionaire bankrolling the Reform Party, the Gallagher brothers and Donald Trump’s man in London are among the new faces in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List.
The 38th edition of the rankings show the UK’s 350 most affluent individuals and families share combined wealth of £784 billion — a 1.4 per cent rise on last year and a sum equivalent to a quarter of UK GDP.
There are 157 billionaires — one more than in 2025 but 20 fewer than the peak four years ago. But the list’s entry level has dipped by £10 million to £340 million, another indicator of the sluggish economic environment.
Sir David and Victoria Beckham, the Labour donor Gary Lubner and the sports promoters Barry and Eddie Hearn all join Britain’s billionaire club for the first time.
The boxer Tyson Fury, the “country chic” fashionista Jade Holland Cooper and a little-known 29-year-old video game creator from Southampton are among the debutants on the 40 under 40 young Rich List.
Christopher Harborne, the Thailand-based billionaire who has given at least £12 million to Nigel Farage and the Reform Party, makes his debut at No 6 with estimated wealth of £18.177 billion.
With Britain’s tax regime regarded as increasingly unattractive to the global super-rich, Warren Stephens is the only billionaire from overseas found to have moved to the UK over the past year.
Arkansas-born Stephens, who ran his family’s investment firm for many years and in 2015 banked $400 million from selling a newspaper group, is now the US president’s ambassador in London.
This year’s edition has been shaped by an exodus of wealthy individuals leaving the UK in the wake of tax changes unveiled by Rachel Reeves, the chancellor.
Nearly a third (111) of the UK citizens who appear in the main list of 350 individuals no longer live on the British mainland. At least 15 foreign nationals who appeared in last year’s Rich List have been removed because they now live elsewhere.
The two Rich Listers who have increased their wealth the most over the past year were both born in Moscow, five years apart. A fundraising for the payments firm Revolut has increased the net worth of its co-founder Nik Storonsky, 41, to £16.411 billion — average gains of £25.8 million a day since last year’s Rich List.
Alex Gerko, the 46-year-old mathematician who set up the trading platform XTX, has a fortune now estimated at £16.006 billion — average daily gains of £19.9 million over the past 12 months. Storonsky and Gerko have both publicly opposed Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, renounced their Russian citizenship and become UK nationals.
Storonsky and Gerko are among five individuals named in the Top 10 of the Rich List who were born in what was the USSR. The other three are Ukraine-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik and Igor and Dmitry Bukhman; billionaire brothers who grew up 300 miles from Moscow, oppose the war and are no longer Russian citizens.
Further down the list, there are new entries from the worlds of music and entertainment. Noel and Liam Gallagher make their debut on the Rich List owing to the Oasis comeback tour. The 41 shows took nearly £400 million at the box office and augmented the value of the brothers’ back catalogue — now worth at least £250 million.
Emily Eavis, whose father Sir Michael Eavis created the Glastonbury festival, makes her debut on the Rich List. Experts have put a value of at least £400 million on the Eavis family’s summer jamboree. There are also places for Sir Brian May and Roger Taylor. Selling Queen’s back catalogue realised £1 billion for the supergroup.
An exodus of wealthy billionaires from overseas has been offset by a crop of new British-based billionaires. They include Paul Hamilton, the Suffolk-based Scotsman behind the software firm Halo, and Gary Lubner, a co-owner of the group behind Autoglass.
Lubner has given more than £10 million to the Labour Party and in this year’s Giving List — philanthropy rankings published alongside the Rich List — vows to give away 95 per cent of his £1.3 billion fortune.
David Beckham becomes the UK’s first billionaire sportsman owing to his stake in Inter Miami and an extensive property empire adjoining the US football club’s stadium. The value of his wife Victoria’s fashion label has also risen. The Beckhams’ wealth is estimated at £1.185 billion.
A 300 per cent rise in the share price of the over-50s cruise operator Saga has returned brothers Sir Roger and Peter De Haan to the ranks of the Rich List’s billionaire club for the first time since 2005. Their late father, Sidney, founded the insurance and holiday group in 1951.
Piotr Dabkowski and Mati Staniszewski, both 31, have become billionaires after a fundraising valued their artificial intelligence platform ElevenLabs at £8.1 billion. Memories of watching poorly dubbed American films during their youth growing up in Poland inspired the pair to launch their London-based synthetic voice generator.
Dabkowski and Staniszewski both feature in this year’s 40 under 40. The Young Rich List is dominated by entrepreneurs who have made their fortunes from either artificial intelligence or fashion. Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Harry Kane are among the household names to feature in these rankings.
One of the less well-known entrants is Daniel Knight, the creator of the ghost-hunting adventure Phasmophobia. Knight, 29, spent five years quietly making the video game. More than 25 million copies have been sold, mostly in the US. His Southampton-based company has racked up profits of £20.9 million and a film of the game is under development.
This year’s 40 under 40 also features four sets of brothers. Twins Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham founded the insurer Marshmallow, while Tom and Phil Beahon set up the fast-growing sportswear brand Castore.
Mike and George Heaton paid themselves the minimum wage salaries for the first ten years of running their streetwear label Represent. The final pair, Ryan and Reece Broadhurst, created the clothes brand Arne after working for the NHS and in timber yards.
The migration of so many Rich Listers to Monaco, Dubai, Switzerland and other low-tax destinations poses challenges for the UK public finances. A spokesman for the Treasury acknowledged that the government remains committed to ensuring that “those with the broadest shoulders” contribute the most to the public finances, adding that modifications have been made to its tax changes to address some concerns.
“Britain remains very attractive to wealthy investors,” the official added. “London is the capital of capitals. The chancellor talks regularly to wealthy people who are committed to staying in Britain.”
The Sunday Times Rich List: the top ten
1. ▲ Sanjay and Dheeraj Hinduja and family: £38bn
The death of their father, Gopi, has handed control of the Hindujas’ vast, diverse empire to his London-based sons, Sanjay, 62, and Dheeraj, 54. Turmoil in the Middle East has also boosted demand for the Hindujas’ coal businesses.
2. ▲ David and Simon Reuben and family: £27.971bn
The India-born brothers are close to completing two vast renovations of historic London buildings, Admiralty Arch and Cambridge House, which are being transformed into luxurious hotels. Their US portfolio is now worth in excess of $5 billion. A company linked to the family donated £100,000 to Reform.
3. ▲ Sir Leonard Blavatnik: £26.852bn
Born in Ukraine and raised in Russia, Blavatnik now has British and US citizenship. His most valuable asset is a controlling stake in the $15 billion Warner Music. Through his Access Industries he owns a property portfolio worth £2 billion, and recently paid $115 million for a house in the Hamptons. He also donated £10 million to the Courtauld Gallery.
4. ▲ Idan Ofer: £24.481bn
Shares in his New York-listed Kenon Holdings have almost doubled in value. The art-loving father of five and his wife, Batia, are among the world’s leading art collectors. He also has a 28 per cent stake in the Spanish football team Atlético Madrid and an 85 per cent stake in Portugal’s FC Famalicão.
5. ▲ Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family: £18.939bn
The transatlantic Weston dynasty should do well from a mooted float of Primark on the London stock market. Other investments include Silver Spoon and Ryvita. Their stake in George Weston has made gains of more than £1 billion.
6. ★ Christopher Harborne: £18.177bn
Donations of £12 million to the Reform Party propelled the secretive Harborne into the headlines. Based in Thailand for more than two decades, his easiest UK asset to track is a £357 million stake in QinetiQ. The Cambridge-educated Harborne’s most valuable asset is a 12 per cent holding in the cryptocurrency firm Tether, valued at £200 billion by Forbes and The Sunday Times.
7. ▲ Nik Storonsky: £16.411bn
Co-founded and led by the Moscow-born techie, the financial services company Revolut was last year valued at more than £55 billion. It secured a full banking licence in March. Storonsky owns 29 per cent of the shares.
8. ▲ Alex Gerko: £16.006bn
XTX, the Moscow-born mathematician’s firm, handles trades of more than $250 billion a day. One of his companies paid out a dividend of more than £2 billion. Cromulon Capital, his investment operation, is named after a race of aliens from the Rick and Morty animated sitcom.
9. ▼ Sir Jim Ratcliffe: £15.194bn
Ineos, Ratcliffe’s sprawling petrochemicals empire, spans 27 countries. As a result of rising debt, falling revenues and a £515.7 million loss, we have cut the value of the business to £17 billion. Ratcliffe’s 29 per cent stake in Manchester United FC is worth £1.4 billion.
10. ▲ Igor and Dmitry Bukhman: £14.26bn
The Russian-born brothers own Playrix, one of the world’s top three mobile games developers. Their private investment operation Rix Capital made gains of more than £900 million. Opposed to the war in Ukraine, the brothers are no longer Russian citizens and both now have joint British and Israeli citizenship. Igor and his wife, Anastasia, have pledged £100 million to the fight against type 1 diabetes.
▲ Wealth up
▼ Wealth down
★ New entry
Additional images: Reuters, Getty Images, Alamy
