If the 1% follow through on their threats, an ‘exit tax’ could raise £500m a year – by plucking golden feathers as they take flight

They’re off! The millionaires are taking flight in droves, chased away by Labour’s budget plans. Day after day, rightwing thinktanks and media grow more demented in their attempt to frighten the wits out of the chancellor. “Number of millionaires in the UK to fall by a fifth,” warns the Times, echoing the Telegraph’s “Britain to suffer biggest exodus of millionaires in the world”, reporting the rightwing Adam Smith Institute’s “millionaire tracker” scare.

Day after day, the old enemy pounds away: “Labour’s plan to punish the rich is about to drive Britain into the ground,” as one Telegraph commentator put it. The pile-on is joined by wealth management companies offering self-interested evidence. The Times front-page splash, which warned the rich were “ready to quit UK over budget tax threat”, cited a company offering relocation services to high-net-worth individuals that has experienced a 69% jump in inquiries. Well, they would. My inbox is full of wealth managers’ warnings about Labour’s inheritance “tax grab”.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist