Ratcliffe's tax gripes say more about his own woes

While it's not the first time Jim Ratcliffe has flirted with the idea of leaving the UK (he previously moved from Britain to Switzerland, back to Britain, and then to Monaco), it looks as though he might now follow through with the threat - the decision may even be permanent, in fact.

- JAMES MOORE

For, according to Brian Gilvary, the executive chair of Ratcliffe's company, Ineos Energy, one of Britain's wealthiest men is considering shifting £3bn of investment to the US because “the UK has become one of the most unstable fiscal regimes in the world from a perspective of natural resources and energy”.

“It means we cannot invest with any certainty because we can't be sure what future tax rates will be,” he said. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall either Ratcliffe or Gilvary saying anything similar when they were furloughing employees during the pandemic. Some might consider Ineos slinging its hook at a time when the bills are coming due from that as pretty rum.

As for the US, consider this: even with all those tariffs president Donald Trump is fond of, the country is running a huge and unsustainable budget deficit. At some point, the US government will have to push through the sort of fiscal consolidation chancellor Rachel Reeves is grappling with. A much bigger one, in point of fact. The “stable” US taxes Ineos is so fond of might not remain that way.

But is this