Sir Mark Thatcher looks for a tax haven home in Gibraltar

Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister Baronesss Thatcher, is planning to become a tax exile in Gibraltar where he could pay only £20,000 a year on his £64m fortune.

According to The Sunday Times, he has consulted tax experts and is now househunting for a £1m penthouse on the Rock.

Sir Mark, who inherited his baronetcy from Sir Denis Thatcher, pleaded guilty in South Africa last year to helping to pay for a military helicopter that was to be used by mercenaries in an attempted coup. He was fined £265,000 and given a four-year suspended sentence. But the Gibraltar government disclosed last week that his criminal conviction would not be a bar to residency. Britons can apply under a new status designed to attract the super-rich and help the dependency compete with places like Monaco, traditionally the preferred location for tax exiles.