Billionaire Ineos founder Jim Ratcliffe has said he does not plan to return to Britain, arguing that the country has developed an unhealthy attitude towards wealth and that its tax system has become too unpredictable.
Ratcliffe, who is also a major shareholder in Manchester United, said he would only consider returning if conditions in the UK improved.
“In America they applaud people who create wealth. Unfortunately, the UK has got a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment,” he told the BBC.
Ratcliffe, whose fortune is estimated at around £15bn, has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020. He said political priorities and governments putting party interests ahead of the country had pushed Britain towards a “bad place”.
The businessman also criticised the government over immigration and welfare spending, arguing that politicians had failed to address either issue.
“No one is dealing with the immigration problem, and no one is tough enough to deal with the benefits problem,” he said. “Someone needs to address this, otherwise the country ends up in a bad place and goes broke.”
“I don’t have any confidence in the UK, it’s very difficult,” Ratcliffe added, pointing to what he described as an unpredictable tax regime.
His comments come as Britain continues to see wealthy residents move abroad. More than 16,000 millionaires left the UK last year, according to the Henley Private Wealth Migration Report, the highest figure recorded by the report. Wealthy individuals have increasingly moved away from high-tax countries in Western Europe, with Greece, Italy and the UAE among the destinations attracting them.
The number of millionaires living in the UK has also declined over the past decade, while the US has recorded growth of almost 80 per cent. Among those to recently leave Britain are steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and billionaire hedge fund manager Chris Rokos.
Ratcliffe’s remarks came on the same day that Betfred founder Fred Done, described as Britain’s biggest taxpayer, told the Financial Times that he would “not wish to be reborn” in the UK because of its tax system. The 83-year-old said he was too old to leave himself, while his children had moved abroad.
Ratcliffe also attacked the government’s approach to domestic energy production, particularly the extraction of natural gas.
He argued that what he called “propaganda” surrounding fracking, including claims that it causes earthquakes, had contributed to the government’s reluctance to invest in gas extraction.
He described the lack of drilling in the North Sea as “insane” and warned that Britain could face gas shortages during a particularly cold winter.
“If we have a really sharp cold spell, then there is conceivably the possibility that we’ll run out of gas and have to switch industry off,” he said, adding that the country’s gas storage facilities were not full.
Ineos operates the Forties pipeline network, which handles nearly a third of Britain’s crude oil production from North Sea fields.
Ratcliffe has previously attracted controversy over his views on immigration. In February, he said Britain had been “colonised” and argued that immigration was costing the country too much. He later apologised for offending people after then-prime minister Sir Keir Starmer criticised his choice of words.
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