Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in the UK and is not surprised the super-rich are fleeing a country 'on the slide'

Billionaire businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in the UK and is not surprised the super-rich are being driven away from a country 'on the slide'.

Outspoken Sir Jim, the co-owner of Manchester United and one of Britain's richest people, warned the decline was down to Labour's failure to tackle welfare and immigration and blamed high taxes.

And he said no politician was 'tough enough' to do something about it and act in the best interests of the country 'instead of their party'.

'Nobody's tough enough to deal with the immigration problem. Nobody's tough enough to deal with the benefits problem. But somebody needs to do it or it ends in a bad place,' he said.

Also highlighting 'the crime on our streets', Sir Jim, who made his fortune in the energy and chemicals sector, said: 'The UK was a fantastic place with the greatest empire in the world. We won two world wars. We were good, honest folk,' warning it was now 'difficult to see how we could arrest' the decline.

He also slammed the government's failure to exploit the UK's own oil and gas supplies and allow and encourage new domestic oil and gas production as 'insanity'.

Brexit supporter Sir Jim, who is said to be worth £17billion and has previously drawn criticism for saying the UK had been 'colonised by immigrants', said the UK could even 'run out of gas' this winter 'in a cold spell' because gas storage was so low.

The businessman left the UK for Monaco in 2020 and said 'things would have to get better' for him to return.

Billionaire businessman Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he has lost confidence in the UK (Pictured last night with wife Catherine Polli at the 20th Anniversary Gala Of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in Monaco)

He is not the only high-profile billionaire to quit our shores. Others who exited the UK include steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and hedge fund boss Chris Rokos.

In a major blow to confidence in the government, hedge fund billionaire Mr Rokos, Britain's third largest taxpayer, paying £330million alone last year, announced this month that he was leaving the UK for Greece, which has generous tax rules to attract overseas business leaders.

Sir Jim, who founded petrochemical giant Ineos after rising through the ranks from a humble working-class background in Greater Manchester, also hit out at the jealousy aimed at the wealthy in the UK.

He said the politics of envy was driving people away from the UK, contrasting the positive attitude in the US to wealth and said the wealthy should be encouraged to stay because they clearly 'spend in the economy they reside in'.

'In America they applaud people who create wealth,' he told a BBC podcast. 'Unfortunately, the UK has got a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment.'

Sir Jim, who runs the Forties pipeline which transports about 30 per cent of the UK's North Sea oil, also lashed out at the government's 'horrendous' high taxes on North Sea operators meaning they were closing down rigs.

'If you tax everybody to death, they're all going to leave. And that's what's happening,' he said.

Andy Burnham has delayed a decision on whether to grant new licences for domestic oil production with Sir Jim criticising him for 'promising to do something about it' but not 'doing anything'.

Sir Jim says further development of the oil and gas fields at Rosebank and Jackdaw – unpopular with Net Zero zealots such as former energy secretary Ed Miliband – must go ahead to save the industry.

Instead of 'exploiting our natural resources' which you would 'expect,' he said, we are 'shutting it down' and 'risk running out of gas this winter'.

He even warned industry 'could be switched off' if reserves ran out because we are competing with China 'which can pay more' for importing energy rather than producing our own which was 'absurd'.

And he said storage facilities which were already smaller than those of our European neighbours because of lack of investment were already not full.

Energy specialist consultancy Cornwall Insight said that current gas storage levels in the EU were at about 69 per cent, when typically they would be at 85 per cent at this time of the year.

Ineos has invested in the EU's first carbon capture project in Denmark which is being subsidised by the Danish government and the EU.

Sir Jim said he had hoped to develop the technology in the UK but there had not been enough government support.

Critics say carbon capture is expensive and the money could be better used to invest in renewables rather than supporting continued fossil fuel use.

Defending its record, a government spokesperson said oil and gas would play an important role in the UK 'for decades to come' but insisted that the 'transition to homegrown clean power is the only way to deliver energy and financial security for families and businesses'.

Earlier this year, Sir Jim was called 'wrong and offensive' by then PM Sir Keir Starmer for his comments on immigration for which he later apologised.