One of UK's richest men applies for German passport as Britain 'hostile' to Jews
The businessman said the passport would give him options that some of his relatives never had as his grandparents were killed in the Holocaust
The richest man in Wales has applied for a German passport, saying he sees it as an escape route if life in the UK becomes 'unsafe for Jews'.
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Sir Michael Moritz, 71, who already holds both American and British passports, described the application as an “insurance policy”, arguing it would give him the option to flee if antisemitism worsens further.
The Welsh-born businessman said the passport would give him options that some of his relatives never had as his grandparents were killed in the Holocaust.
"Britain is an uncomfortable place for Jews today," he said.
Mr Moritz said he viewed Germany differently from other European countries because of how centrally the Nazi era is taught in schools.
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"I think it’s [Germany is] the one place in Europe where what happened [nearly] 100 years ago forms a very central part of the educational system, so you have generations that have been reared with that as part of their consciousness," he said.
"Does that mean it will prevent dreadful things [from] happening in the future? No, but it gives me some mild form of reassurance."
Mr Moritz also pointed to signs of growing fear among Jewish families in the UK.
He said there were "kids in northwest London who no longer wear their school blazers" to avoid being identified as attending Jewish schools.
"It’s all these anecdotes that strike home more than anything else," he said.
In his memoir, Ausländer (the German word for foreigner or outsider), Mr Moritz has written about feeling different growing up in Wales.
"There was no shortage of Evanses and Thomases, but we were the only Moritz," he wrote.
"And to me, that was as if — in the margin, in big black capital letters — it said Jew."
Mr Moritz is consistently ranked as the wealthiest person in Wales and among the top 50 in the UK.
The fortune of Mr Moritz and his wife, Harriet Heyman, was estimated at £4.43 billion in The Sunday Times Rich List 2025.
He also argued the UK is a less attractive place to do business than the US and China, criticised some UK boards for lacking the expertise to back new technology, and said AI could be “deeply disruptive” for white-collar workers.
"It’ll be fantastically liberating for creative types who can master all of these incredible tools," he said.