The number of wealthy Chinese acquiring UK “golden visas” that give residency in return for investing ￡2m or more in assets rose sharply last year as worries over Brexit paled next to Britain’s attractiveness as a secure bolthole for international money.

Mainland Chinese took 116 of the 355 “investor visas” granted in 2017 by the UK to wealthy individuals, up 56 per cent on the previous year, according to statistics made available to the Financial Times by LJ Partnership, a London-based private wealth partnership.

So dominant were mainland Chinese in the investor visa scheme last year that they outnumbered Russians, the next biggest recipients by country, by 250 per cent. If Hong Kong and Macau recipients are counted, then 146 Chinese got investor visas last year, up 82.5 per cent on 2016.