Hedge fund tycoon who paid £330million in tax last year quits UK amid exodus of wealthy under Labour

A hedge fund tycoon who paid £330million in tax last year is joining the exodus of billionaires from Labour’s Britain.

The contribution from Chris Rokos, founder of Rokos Capital Management, makes him Britain’s third biggest taxpayer.

But now Mr Rokos is switching his residency to Greece and opening an office in Athens, Bloomberg News reported.

The move comes as an embarrassing blow on the day that John Healey – in his first major speech as Chancellor – said he wanted to be a ‘country of wealth creation’.

Instead, the likes of Mr Rokos – said to be worth about $4billion (£3billion) are fleeing as Labour hikes taxes.

Already, non-domiciled residents, inheritance, expensive properties and private school fees have been targeted.

Now, fears are growing that Labour will introduce even more taxes on wealth to pay for Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s costly promises to build more council houses and overhaul social care, as well as measures to keep a lid on the cost of living and higher defence spending.

Balancing the books has been made even harder by a bond market sell-off that has driven the cost of borrowing close to 28-year highs.

Critics say that Labour must tackle this by cutting Britain’s ballooning welfare bill rather than hiking taxes – already at the highest level since the 1940s – even more. Previous chancellor Rachel Reeves has already put them up by £75billion.

Billionaires including Guillaume Pousaz, founder of payment platform Checkout.com, and Egypt’s second-richest man Nassef Sawiris have already upped sticks and quit the UK.

Mr Rokos, 55, earlier this year donated £190million to Cambridge University in what was described as the largest single donation to a British university in modern times.

He said at the time that he wanted to ‘give something back’ with the donation.

Mr Rokos attended a state primary school before going to Eton after winning a scholarship. He studied maths at Pembroke College, Oxford.

He was paid £477million last year after a bumper year for his firm, with profits almost tripling to £940million.

Mr Rokos owns the historic Tottenham House near Marlborough in Wiltshire, a 100-bed Grade I listed mansion.

He has donated to the Conservative Party in the past and last year put his mansion in Florida on the market for £110million after buying it for what was a record price of £30million in 2017.

A spokesman for Mr Rokos declined to comment.