Hugh Grosvenor, the seventh Duke of Westminster, is the U.K.’s third-richest person and considered by some its most eligible bachelor.
He’s tried to stay out of the spotlight since inheriting his title in 2016, but these days it’s almost impossible for a billionaire, especially one with a global property empire, to remain in the background.
Criticism is mounting for the Duke and his Grosvenor Group Ltd. The firm faces opposition to its plans to demolish a London tower that houses some of the city’s poorest residents, attracting negative headlines as rising inequality becomes an increasingly hot topic. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in October blasted the 28-year-old as a “dodgy landlord,” part of a broad-based attack on U.K. billionaires and the “rigged system.”
This leaves the Grosvenor Group in an unenviable position with this week’s election.
If the Conservative Party under Boris Johnson wins the Dec. 12 vote, then Brexit will follow, potentially devaluing London property.
Polls in Sunday’s U.K. newspapers all give the Conservatives a clear lead over Labour, though they differ by how much.
But if Labour can form a government, the family’s fortune may face an existential threat. Corbyn is campaigning on higher taxes for the wealthy, restrictions on landlords and has also suggested public registers for the type of trusts that discreetly manage the wealth of the Grosvenor family and other dynastic clans.
A Labour government “would require far more transparency of wealth, particularly with trusts,” said Richard Murphy, professor of international political economy at City University of London. The Duke “didn’t choose to be what he is, as it’s an accident of birth, but he is a personification of a form of property ownership whose time has now passed.”
A spokesman for the Duke of Westminster declined to comment.
The Grosvenors have faced starker challenges than a firebrand Labour government, surviving through wars and political shifts.