Britain’s billionaire club revealed: The 55 super-wealthy Brits who appear on the annual Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people

Britain’s billionaire club has today been revealed in the annual Forbes list of the world’s richest people.

The 55 super-wealthy Brits, ranging from hedge fund bosses to football club owners and real estate tycoons, continue to accumulate staggering wealth amid a cost-of-living crisis.

Most who make the list are names we would all recognise, but Britain’s richest man is so secretive even his receptionist doesn’t know who he is.

Hedge fund tycoon Michael Platt, the cofounder and managing director of BlueCrest Capital, is estimated to be worth a staggering $18.8billion – a jump of $8.8billion in the last five years.

Chemical engineer and Manchester United owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the second richest Brit on the list, estimated to be worth $16billion. The 72-year-old’s wealth has dropped from $16.5billion last year and $22.9billion in 2023. 

James Dyson, the famed British inventor who created the world’s leading vacuum brand, is always a name which appears in the Forbes and Sunday Times rich lists – and this time he is third.

Dyson, who accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of inflicting ‘an egregious act of self-harm’ on the economy in the Autumn Budget, is believed to be worth $14.6billion today – an increase of $1billion from last year.

MailOnline looks at the 55 wealthiest Brits who have been named in the Forbes Rich List 2025.

Michael Platt – $18.8bn

The Preston-born billionaire has been crowned Britain’s richest man for the second year running.

Platt, who started investing when he was just 14 after being gifted a £500 present from his grandmother, is the co-founder and managing director of BlueCrest Capital Management, the third largest hedge fund firm in Europe.

Despite amazing extraordinary wealth, Platt has remained intriguingly under the radar.

The Mail revealed last year how the receptionist on the front desk of the glass-fronted skyscraper near Victoria Station, where the London headquarters of his hedge fund is based on the eighth floor, is blissfully unaware of who he is.

Preston-born billionaire Michel Platt has been crowned Britain’s richest man for the second year running

Sir Jim Ratcliffe – $16bn

The chemical engineer has had a tough time since taking over Manchester United, with results and morale at the club at an all-time low.

Having said that, things off the pitch are looking much sweeter for Ratcliffe, who is the second richest Brit, according to the annual Forbes rich list.

The 72-year-old is the founder, chairman and majority owner of chemical giant Ineos, which is estimated to be worth $68billion (2022).

Ratcliffe’s deal to buy a 27.7 per cent stake in Man United, worth around £1.25billion, was completed last February. 

Ratcliffe has had a tumultuous 14 months at Man United, sparking anger with hundreds of redundancies and increasing ticket prices – all while performances on the pitch are slumping. 

The chemical tycoon purchased the stake through Ineos – whose portfolio includes teams in cycling, sailing and football. 

Ineos was founded in 1998 by Ratcliffe, who built his fortune after working for Courtaulds, the parent firm of Esso, and being part of a buyout of a BP chemicals firm to create Inspec. 

The chemical engineer has had a tough time since taking over Manchester United – but life off the pitch is much sweeter for Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is the second richest Brit on the list

James Dyson – $14.6bn 

One of Britain’s leading businessmen, billionaire James Dyson has been heavily critical of the British government in recent years.

The hoover tycoon has clashed with former and current chancellors Jeremy Hunt and Rachel Reeves over the country’s economic plans.

That being said, Dyson is estimated to be worth a staggering $14.6billion – a huge increase from $5.9billion in 2020.

Dyson sparked a major backlash when he relocated his firm’s global HQ to Singapore three years after the referendum. He defended the move and has always maintained Dyson is a ‘British company’.

He was one of the most vocal business voices backing Brexit but moved the company to Singapore in 2019. The company also has bases in Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, London and Bristol.

In 2023, he announced plans to invest £100million in a new research and development hub in central Bristol. 

Dyson is estimated to be worth $14.6billion – a huge increase from $5.9billion in 2020

The Reuben brothers – $12.8bn

Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben are among the top five richest Brits on the latest Forbes list.

The Indian-born siblings first made their money in the global metals industry and have since invested heavily in real estate. 

The siblings have seen their fortunes soar again despite splashing out on super yachts, a private jet and an exclusive nightclub in recent years.

The Chelsea fans also played a role in Newcastle’s £300million Saudi takeover, which has helped propel the Premier League side to their first trophy since 1969 this season.

After being born in Bombay, David and Simon moved to Islington, north London, with their mother in the 1950s.

Both left school at 17, with David venturing into the world of scrap metal and Simon starting out in the carpet trade.

Both did so well that they started investing in property on Walton Street and King’s Road in Chelsea.

Together they launched Trans-World Metals and became the world’s third largest aluminium producer by 1996. Four years later, they sold their business to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich before he went on to buy Chelsea.

The Indian-born siblings first made their money in the global metals industry and have since invested heavily in real estate

Denise Coates – $7.3bn 

Denise Coates, Britain’s richest woman, has made billions through online gambling.

The boss of Bet365, who is the ninth richest Brit on the list, pocketed an estimated £150 million last year from her family’s gambling business, taking her earnings over the last seven years to more than £2billion. 

She is believed to have received a salary of nearly £95million from the firm for the year to March 2024, according to recently filed accounts.

Bet365 said the salary payments had been made to its highest-paid director, which is understood to be Coates who serves as its chief executive.

Coates, 57, is famous for her record-breaking pay packets, which over the last decade have amounted to around £2.4 billion.

Coates set up Bet365 in 2000 from a car park and is credited with creating thousands of jobs in Stoke-on-Trent, where it employs more than 8,500 people.

It remains a family business with her brother John Coates serving as joint chief executive as well as a major shareholder.

The Coates family also control Stoke City Football Club, which has its home ground at the Bet365 stadium.

The boss of Bet365, who is the ninth richest Brit on the list, pocketed an estimated £150 million last year from her family’s gambling business

Joe Lewis – $6.8bn 

The former Tottenham Hotspur owner continues to see his wealth soar despite his personal troubles.

Joe Lewis pled guilty to insider trading charges in January 2024 for sharing information with his pilots and ex-girlfriend and was sentenced to three years probation, with a $5billion fine. 

Lewis had little day to day involvement despite being the owner of Tottenham with the spotlight instead taken by chairman Daniel Levy, who was placed in charge when the ENIC group took over the club in 2001.

Lewis left school at the age of 15 when he started working on his father’s catering business Tavistock Banqueting and later took charge. He expanded the business further with restaurants focused on the tourist market, including the Beefeater pub chain and the West End nightclub, the Hanover Grand.

He sold the family business for £30million in 1979, the same year he became a tax exile in the Bahamas. Lewis’s focus had shifted to currency trading after establishing the Tavistock Group four years prior.

Success in the currency trading contributed to Lewis earning the nickname ‘The Boxer’, also owing to his namesake and former world heavyweight champion Joe Louis. One of Lewis’s companies was named Boxer Capital as a result.

Lewis is said to have made his huge fortune by betting on ‘Black Wednesday’, when Britain was forced to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after a collapse in the pound on September 16, 1992.

The ERM was introduced in the late 1970s to stabilise European currencies in preparation for the introduction of the Euro. Lewis teamed up with hedge-fund manager George Soros in betting on the pound crashing out, and made eye-watering sums of money out of a national crisis.

Joe Lewis is said to have made his huge fortune by betting on ‘Black Wednesday’, when Britain was forced to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) after a collapse in the pound on September 16, 1992

Lewis was estimated to have lost a third of his fortune in 2008 due to the collapse of the American bank Bear Stearns. However, his wealth has grown over the past decade having been worth an estimated £3.1billion in 2013, with the Briton now worth £4.7billion.

Lewis’s Tavistock Group are reported to own over 200 assets in 13 countries, including luxury club resorts, restaurants, hotels and an Australian agriculture firm.

He is the majority shareholder at Mitchells & Butlers, which owns a flock of pubs and restaurants including All Bar One, Toby Carvery and the Harvester chain.

The billionaire is also famed for his extensive art collection which includes work by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon and Henry Moore. Last year, Lewis set a world record by selling a David Hockney painting for £70.3 million, a record for an artwork by a living artist.

Lewis also teamed up with golfer Tiger Woods to create the ultra-exclusive Albany golf and leisure resort in the Bahamas, with Ernie Els and Justin Timberlake among its co-owners.

Mike Ashley – $5.1bn

Business tycoon Mike Ashley, 60, made his billions after founding Sports Direct in 1982 at the age of 18.

When he took the company public in 2007, Ashley pocketed a handsome £1.4billion from the IPO, having made the business into the UK’s largest sporting goods retailer.

His newly-acquired wealth helped him purchase Newcastle United that same year and he remained at the helm until 2021, when the club was sold to a consortium backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund for around £308m.

In 2019 he acquired department store chain House of Fraser and renamed Sports Direct’s parent company as Frasers Group. 

Three years later he handed over the role of CEO to his son-in-law Michael Murray. 

Business tycoon Mike Ashley, 60, made his billions after founding Sports Direct in 1982 at the age of 18

Bernie Ecclestone – $2.4bn 

Bernie Ecclestone was born in comparative poverty on October 28, 1930, in East London, but became one of Britain’s richest tycoons by transforming Formula One from a sport for car enthusiasts into a global brand producing profits of more than £1billion a year.

The 94-year-old left school at 15 to trade motorbike parts while employed by the Gas Board, and honed his skills by haggling over the prices of used cars with criminals.

Ecclestone amassed a portfolio of luxury items including a large yacht, racehorses, fabulous houses across London and in Switzerland, and a private jet.

He has been known to always pay in cash, and was often seen peeling off 500-euro notes from a wad. It was reported in 2014 that he had been known to carry $1million (£600,000) in cash in a plastic bag – and then leave the bag in a room by mistake.

Ecclestone was been married three times, first to Ivy Bamford in 1952, then to Croatian model Slavica Radić in 1985 before their divorce in 2009 and most recently to Brazilian Fabiana Flosi in 2012.

He met Fabiana in 2009 at the World Motor Sport Council in Brazil when she was working in marketing for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Interlagos.

It was revealed in April 2020 that she was pregnant when Ecclestone was 89 years old. The boy was born in July of that year and they named the baby Ace.

Ecclestone has four children, including Tamara and Petra, who are the daughters of his second wife Slavica. His eldest daughter, Deborah, 70, was from his first marriage to Ivy.

Ecclestone became one of Britain’s richest tycoons by transforming Formula One from a sport for car enthusiasts into a global brand producing profits of more than £1bn a year

Ben Francis – £1.3bn 

At age 32, Ben Francis is the youngest self-made British entrepreneur on Forbes’ prestigious billionaires rich list after amassing a whopping $1.3billion fortune.

While working as a delivery driver for Pizza Hut, Francis dropped out of university to focus on his brand full time and in 2020 it was valued at over £1billion.

Gymshark, headquartered in Solihull, the West Midlands, is worn by some of the world’s biggest celebrities and influencers from Rita Ora to Nicole Scherzinger.

The brand – which now sells in 230 countries – has had a couple of hiccups along the way, including when it was accused of ‘virtue-signalling’ in 2020 after it used pictures of a model with her love handles on show.

‘Fat-phobic’ followers claimed influencer Nelly London, from Brighton, ‘had no business’ promoting the brand’s fitness wear and claimed they would boycott the ‘woke warriors’ over the range.

However, the entrepreneur’s brand has gone from strength to strength.

It was his grandmother who taught him how to sew and he set up a workshop in his parents’ garage in Birmingham, complete with a sewing machine and screen printer.

He managed to make around 10 pieces a day, but had to work around his degree and part-time job.

At age 32, Ben Francis is the youngest self-made British entrepreneur on Forbes’ prestigious billionaires rich list after amassing a whopping $1.3billion fortune

During the pandemic it was revealed that Francis donated £180,000 to Birmingham’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital where his mother works.

The firm did not place any of its staff on the government’s furlough scheme.

Francis said: ‘We are going to weather the storm… we don’t want to put any unnecessary pressure on the government.’

Last year he was made an MBE at Windsor Castle for his services to the business sector.

John Caudwell – $3.4bn

The Phones4U founder has amassed a whopping $3.4bn over the years, but his wealth is a far cry from his roots in working-class Stoke as the son of an engineering products salesman and a mother who worked in a post room to make ends meet.

Caudwell abandoned his A-levels to become an apprentice at Michelin, and worked for several years there as an engineering foreman while gaining a HNC in mechanical engineering.

While working at Michelin he also ran a corner shop and started a mail order business selling clothing to motorcyclists.

In 1987, Caudwell registered Midland Mobile Phones as a mobile phone wholesaler, initially taking 26 Motorola mobiles at £1,350 each.

It took eight months to sell these 26 phones to local plumbers, taxi drivers and television repairmen at a price of £2,500 each. The company made a loss every month for the first two years of operations.

But then the business became the Caudwell Group, which included an independent mobile phone network service provider called Singlepoint and high street mobile shop Phones4U, which he sold for £1.5bn in 2006.

The Phones4U founder has amassed a whopping $3.4bn over the years – but his wealth is a far cry from his working class roots

Richard Branson – $2.8bn

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson, born on July 18, 1950 in Blackheath, London, has amassed an almost $3bn fortune and is placed 25th on Forbes’ list of super-wealthy British billionaires.

A high school dropout, Branson started his business ventures selling records he wrote about in Student Magazine in the late 60s.

It was called Virgin Mail Order Records due to everyone’s inexperience in business.

The enterprise was an overnight success and in 1971 Branson opened up the first British discount record store.

With the money raised from the shop sales, Branson launched Virgin Records with Nik Powell the following year.

Virgin Records’ first signing was the multi-instrumentalist Mike Oldfield, whose album Tubular Bells was the third-bestselling album of the 1970s.

Branson’s wealth has allowed him to indulge his daredevil predilections. In 1987, his Virgin Atlantic Flyer hot air balloon crossed the Atlantic, becoming the first one to do so.

Four years later, he was in the balloon that was the first to cross the Pacific from Japan to Arctic Canada.

Branson launched Virgin Galactic in 2004, in a bid to become the first company to send tourists into space

He has also tried to circumnavigate the globe in a hot air balloon.

In 1999, Richard Branson was knighted by the Queen as part of the New Years Honours List.

Branson launched Virgin Galactic in 2004, in a bid to become the first to send tourists into space.

In 2006, Branson pledged $3bn to tackle the threat of global warming and climate change over the next ten years.

Branson has been married twice, first to Kristen Tomassi between 1972 and 1979, and from 1989 to Joan Templeman, whom he first met in the mid-70s. He has two children with Templeman.

The pair were married on Necker Island, Branson’s private island, which he bought for $180,000 in 1979.