Reeves hits both rich and poor as Britain’s wealthiest residents head for the door: MAGGIE PAGANO

Rachel Reeves appears to have managed the impossible: upset everyone in the country – from the richest to the squeezed middle to the poorest – with her punitive tax hikes and reforms.

On the one hand, a number of the UK’s wealthiest are leaving the country in droves because of the abolition of non-dom status and other tax rises.

Some experts say one millionaire is upping sticks every 45 minutes. Since Labour came to power it is estimated that at least 11,000 dollar millionaires have left: assets with feet.

The exodus of wealth taking place has even given birth to its own Brexit-style acronym, Wexit. 

Take a look at Heathrow’s departure lounge, says one wealth manager. It is heaving with the ultra-rich, as well as some of our most ambitious entrepreneurs, decamping to warmer climes.

On the other hand, those households who do have some middling wealth but don’t have the means to hot-foot it to Dubai or Rome are pouring their money into Cash ISAs ahead of mooted reductions in allowances and higher taxes.

They are wise to do so. Individuals are waking up to the fact that more tax rises are on the cards and that savings need to be protected at the best rate. 

More need to do so. There is still £360billion sitting in UK current and savings accounts earning 1 per cent interest or less.

Yet with the freezing of personal tax thresholds and more individuals being pushed into higher tax bands due to fiscal drag, it looks as though more and more householders are seeking out the most valuable tax-efficient options available.

So valuable that Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the country’s biggest platforms for private investors, reports that demand for Cash ISAs is booming. It saw record money flows in the first 20 days of April.

And the proportion of deposits going into fixed-term Cash ISAs are up four-fold compared to the three months before tax year end. 

One- and two-year fixed terms are proving the most popular, offering 4.5 per cent, despite the likelihood of a couple of interest rate cuts this year. That looks likely with the Bank of England expected to make another rate cut next week.

With energy prices coming down – and lower than the level looked at in the Bank’s last inflation forecast – and a stronger pound, the Monetary Policy Committee is bound to be in a more dovish mood and could go for a 0.5 percentage point cut.

It certainly should be bold. Economic forecasts are becoming more negative.

The latest from EY Item Club suggests that UK growth will be barely nudging 0.8 per cent this year, down from the anaemic 1pc forecast in February.

EY doesn’t expect much change next year either, with GDP coming in at about 0.9 per cent. This shouldn’t come as any surprise. 

It’s what to expect if you drive out the country’s wealthiest and – as recent borrowing figures show – lose billions in tax revenue.

If at the same time you scare households to put extra money into savings, you lose consumption but also potential capital that could be invested more productively. 

More dangerous, though, is that Reeves has created a mood of despair, driving an increasing number of our most talented and skilled overseas.

Online woe

Some of the customer responses to the cyber attack at Marks & Spencer – forcing it to halt online shopping – have been pathetic. 

Shoppers have been moaning about clothes not coming in time for holidays and other silly complaints. As they say, that’s a First World problem.

Yet having to pause M&S’s site while it is being fixed is clearly tough for the retailer. Shares are down nearly 10 per cent since Easter. 

Around a third of all clothing and home sales are made online so the outage will have a big impact. 

Maybe the attack will also lead to M&S rethinking its long-term goal of pushing for over half of all sales to be online. 

Depending on the internet for such a substantial chunk of sales is perhaps not so sensible. Just look at the outages in Spain and Portugal.

Lidl openings

On a brighter note, German discounter Lidl is opening 40 stores and eyeing several sites in the most affluent parts of the capital. 

The rich may be different to you and I, but they still love a bargain.