Brexit-supporting Grangemouth boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe is quitting the UK for Monaco, it was revealed yesterday.
The boss of petrochemical giants Ineos, 65, is scarpering to the tax haven and two of his executives, Andy Currie and John Reece, may follow.
Ratcliffe, whose £21billion fortune makes him the richest person in the country, is a high-profile backer of Brexit.
Before the 2016 referendum, he said: “The Brits are perfectly capable of managing the Brits and don’t need Brussels telling them how to manage things.
“I just don’t believe in the concept of a United States of Europe. It’s not viable.”
He has now shown the courage of his convictions by fleeing before the UK leaves the EU in March next year.
Ineos’s headquarters will remain in London, reports said.
Ratcliffe, a chemical engineer who grew up in a council house near Manchester, is nicknamed Dr No by union bosses and JR – after TV oil baddie JR Ewing – by other detractors.
He came close to causing an economic disaster in Scotland in 2013 when he announced he was closing the Grangemouth plant because of a dispute.
The Daily Record tracked him down to one of his super yachts, as it was moored in the port of La Ciotat in the south of France.
When unions gave way to save the jobs of 1400 workers, they had to accept new working terms, including less pension benefits.
The industrialist wants to start fracking for shale gas in the UK but failed in a legal bid to overturn the Scottish Government’s ban in June.
Ratcliffe has quit Britain before. In 2010, Ineos moved to Switzerland, saving £400million in tax, when the UK Government refused to let them defer a VAT bill.
The company said at the time that the UK was “no longer competitive”.
However, they moved their HQ back to the UK in 2016 when the Tories lowered the corporation tax rate.
Ratcliffe’s home is currently a £6million estate in Hampshire in the south of England. He also owns a large property on the French Riviera.
He founded Ineos in 1998 and prospered by buying up unwanted operations from BP and ICI. The company now have an annual turnover of £45billion.
They employ more than 18,500 staff at 181 sites in 22 countries and are the largest privately-owned company in the UK. Ratcliffe owns 60 per cent of it.
They made £2.2billion in profit last year.
When he was knighted in June, Labour MSP Neil Findlay said: “Ratcliffe’s knighthood has been awarded for ripping up the rights of the workforce who, let us never forget, are the ones who made his millions for him.”
