Griff Rhys Jones to 'probably' quit UK over Labour mansion tax

He currently lives in a 'gigantic' house in Fitzrovia

Comedian and TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones will “probably” move abroad and buy a “massive palace” if Labour wins the next general election, he has said.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Jones, 61, said Labour’s plans to introduce a “mansion tax” on the super-rich would hit him hard as he currently lives in a “gigantic” house in Fitzrovia, London.

He bought the property about 15 years ago when it was a “slum”, he said, and spent the next few years doing it up.

Jones, famous for BBC comedy show Alas Smith and Jones in the 1980s and 1990s and for the Three Men in a Boat series with Dara Ó Briain and Rory McGrath more recently, said he might leave the UK if Ed Miliband led the Labour party to power.

“It would mean I’d be paying the most colossal tax, which is aimed at foreigners who have apparently come in and bought up all the property in London. That sounds about as fatuous an idea as that immigrants are stealing all the jobs,” he said.

“I’d probably live abroad because I could get some massive palace which I could restore.”

“It’s quite likely that the population is keen on seeing rich people squeal.

“So I’m not going to squeal to make them feel better.”

In other forays into politics, Jones has said Welsh people were “too sensible” to want independence from the UK, criticised planning laws for not giving greater protection country areas from development and dismissed wind farms as “green tokenism”.