Sir Jim Ratcliffe bemoans UK government’s lack of budgetary “rigour”

The Monegasque resident and British entrepreneur slams the mini-budget announced by Liz Truss, which consists in lowering taxes for the richest.

Is the UK government fiscally unsound? This is what Sir Jim Ratcliffe claims in an interview with the Financial Times, published on Wednesday 12 October.

The Monaco resident and owner of OGC Nice points in particular to the lack of funding to enable the announced tax reductions. “You have to balance your books somehow or other,” he explains.

This follows statements by the Conservative British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng. On 23 September, they announced the introduction of a “mini-budget”, consisting of tax cuts for the richest people to revitalise the country as a response to inflation.

This position caused outrage in the opposition, which accused the government of favouring the wealthy, but also had dire consequences for sterling, which fell to an all-time low in the fallout, prompting the International Monetary Fund to call on the United Kingdom to scrap the proposals.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe said the UK government needed to be “more rigorous”, adding that it was the same rigour that had been the key to his success.

Britain’s richest man, Sir Jim Ratcliffe also criticises the UK government’s lack of energy policy, especially in the run-up to winter. The UK “doesn’t really have an energy strategy that is coherent compared to the US,” he adds, pointing out that such a policy requires a long-term plan.