What a vast gulf there is between Britain’s richest man, the chemicals mogul Sir Jim Ratcliffe, and Bill Gates, the world’s greatest philanthropist.
When I interviewed Gates last week, he confided that he had paid $10billion in tax since he founded software giant Microsoft in the mid-1970s, but that he did not think even that vast sum was enough to fulfil his responsibilities to society.
Contrast that attitude, the maturity and modesty shown by a titan like Gates, with Ratcliffe’s tawdry plans to deprive the UK Treasury of huge sums in tax by moving to Monaco.
There, of course, his neighbours will include luminaries such as Sir Philip Green and his wife Lady Tina. She notoriously took a £1.2billion dividend completely free of tax from her husband’s fashion empire in 2005, thanks to her residence in the principality which was famously described by novelist Somerset Maugham as a ‘sunny place for shady people’.
What a way for Sir Jim, the founder of Ineos, a multi-national chemicals company and a vocal Brexiteer, to behave towards Britain as it hurtles towards life outside the European Union.
Ineos, the business which he created from scratch, is Britain’s biggest private company with a turnover of nearly £47billion and 19,000 employees in 24 countries
In Monaco, of course, his neighbours will include luminaries such as Sir Philip Green and his wife Lady Tina. She notoriously took a £1.2billion dividend completely free of tax from her husband’s fashion empire in 2005
What a way for Sir Jim, the founder of Ineos, a multi-national chemicals company and a vocal Brexiteer, to behave towards Britain as it hurtles towards life outside the European Union. He is following in the footsteps of fellow Brexiteer billionaire Sir James Dyson, who recently announced that he, too, is jumping ship by moving his company headquarters to Singapore.
Unlike the majority of Britons, the two businessmen have the luxury of spouting their pro-Brexit opinions safe in the knowledge they are insulated from any of the consequences by their vast wealth. They can hedge their bets and cut their tax bills by shunting their assets – or themselves – offshore.
And what a way for Ratcliffe to repay the honour of the knighthood bestowed on him by the Queen only last summer for services to business and investment. But in his mindset, patriotism and principle come a long way behind profit and personal enrichment.
Keeping afloat: Among his ‘boys’ toys’ is the superyacht Hampshire II, which cost £130million
All of this is a terrible shame
