Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe slams 'idiotic' UK government carbon taxes
Sir Jim said carbon taxation was ‘the most idiotic tax in the world’
Ineos boss and founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has criticised the UK government over its “idiotic” carbon tax policies the day after his company benefited from a major support package.
Sir Jim made the comments after it was announced Ineos had secured more than £120 million in government support to help save the UK’s last ethylene plant at Grangemouth.
The deal is expected to protect some 500 jobs, plus hundreds more in the supply chain. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was an investment in “good jobs, stronger communities and a modern economy”.
In a statement, Sir Jim said the intervention was “timely and welcome“, but also hit out at the Labour government’s policies.
“Grangemouth is hugely important both economically and strategically,” he said. “We need jobs. We need home production. We need national security which we lose if we can’t run hospitals or make armaments or transport food.
“The government’s support for Grangemouth is a great start but is only a start in re-establishing a competitive manufacturing base for the country.
“We now must scrap carbon taxation, the most idiotic tax in the world. It simply squeezes the life out of home production as there is no cash left for investment and we end up replacing home produced goods with imported products from places that still burn coal. An utterly ridiculous tax that kills industry and increases global CO2 emissions.
“Furthermore, we need an energy strategy that provides competitive energy costs to industry and we must maximise our output from the North Sea which still has abundant reserves. If the government simply applied corporation tax rates to North Sea production, investment would rise and output would grow.”
On Wednesday, Chancellor Rachel Reeves was accused by opponents of reaching a “new low” after she dismissed claims 1,000 North Sea jobs are being lost each month because of UK government policy.
She said there had been job losses in the oil and gas sector for “a number of years”, going back to before the introduction of the windfall tax.
"What we're trying to do as a government is to bring new jobs into Scotland and also to support industries like we see here in Grangemouth by stepping in, not just carping from the sidelines,” she said.
Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), which represents the industry, has repeatedly warned the current fiscal regime is costing 1,000 jobs a month. It wants the windfall tax - or energy profits levy - to be reformed.
Conservative MSP Douglas Lumsden, his party’s energy spokesman, said: “Jim Ratcliffe’s comments are bang on the money. It is just common sense that while we still rely on oil and gas we should be producing it here at home.
“It speaks volumes that despite getting money from the Labour government, Jim Ratcliffe knows that their policies are killing jobs and our economy.
“The ideological war on the sector from Labour and the SNP must stop. Keir Starmer should listen those in the industry and ditch the energy profits levy and carbon taxes so we can reduce bills and protect jobs.”
A UK government spokeswoman said: “The Budget set a clear path for the energy profits levy to end by 2030 at the latest, or earlier if its price floor is triggered, giving the sector and its investors the long-term certainty to plan, invest and support jobs.
“We are also making sure the North Sea has a prosperous and sustainable future through record investment that helps deliver the next generation of skills jobs while growing the clean energy industries of the future.”
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