Billionaire Ratcliffe says government must create growth in the economy
BILLIONAIRE businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said the UK needs “to get a bit sharper on the business front” and needs “competitive energy”.
Sir Jim, who is chairman of global chemicals company Ineos, told Sky News: “The UK does need to get a bit sharper on the business front and I think the biggest objective for the government is to create growth in the economy.
“There’s two parts of the economy – there’s the services side of the economy and there’s the manufacturing side – and the manufacturing, unfortunately, has been sliding away now for the last 25 years.
“We were very similar in scale to Germany probably 25 years ago but today we’re just a fraction of where Germany is and I think it isn’t healthy for the British economy – particularly when you think the north of England is very manufacturing-based and that talks to things like energy competitiveness, it talks to things like why do you put an immensely high tax on the North Sea? That just disincentivises people from finding hydrocarbons in the North Sea – in energy.
“And what we need is competitive energy.”
He said: “There’s no question that the Conservatives have had a good run over the last 15, 20 years and I think most of the country feels it’s probably time for a change, and I sort of get that, really.”
Asked whether his company would donate to Labour, Sir Jim said: “We’re apolitical at Ineos, we just want a successful manufacturing sector in the UK.
“We’ll talk to either government about that.”
The prominent Brexit supporter said: “Brexit, unfortunately, didn’t turn out how people anticipated.
“Brexit was largely about immigration – that was the biggest component of that vote.
“People were getting fed up of the influx of the city of Southampton coming in every year. I think last year it was two times Southampton. A small island like the UK can’t cope with vast numbers of people coming into the UK – it just overburdens the National Health Service, the traffic service, the police. The country was designed for 55 or 60 million people and we’ve got 70 million people, and all the services break down as a consequence.
“That’s what Brexit was all about and nobody has implemented that, they just keep talking about it but nothing has been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with a change of government.”