Keir Starmer has turned Jim Ratcliffe, who’s worth £17bn, into one of Britain’s biggest benefit claimants. Starmer’s done that through an £120m public subsidy to Ratcliffe’s chemicals company Ineos.
Starmer handing money to billionaires
Instead of investing in his own company, Ratcliffe has taken a handout. And the government isn’t taking a stake in the company, meaning it’s literally free. This is clearly another case of socialism for the rich and capitalism for the less well off.
Imagine if Starmer had handed 1,200 people on low incomes £100,000 each. The corporate media would be up in arms. But from the BBC to the Guardian, they are treating Starmer as a saviour, even though he’s giving millions to a super rich person worth £17bn.
The handout comes despite Ineos’ financial division holding £1.75bn in cash.
High energy costs
Ratcliffe has long complained about the high energy costs in the UK. Through producing chemicals, Ineos is energy intensive. And indeed, people and businesses are paying much higher rates in the UK than other countries:
However bad you think things are in the UK, it’s worse pic.twitter.com/3osrcoaTxx
— Alec Stapp (@AlecStapp) November 7, 2024
That’s why the government should bring energy companies into public ownership while transitioning to renewables through a publicly owned Green New Deal. This would significantly reduce energy costs for every person and business while contributing to government income.
High energy costs do not provide an argument for an £120m handout to a billionaire. We could bring down energy bills through investment in renewables. Tribe Impact Capital has calculated that just 1.2% of the Sahara Desert would need to be covered in solar panels to power the entire globe’s energy requirements.
More corporate welfare
Ratcliffe isn’t the only super rich benefit claimant. In the 2023/24 year, some of the government’s subsidies to corporations amounted to a whopping £32bn. The year before, they were £53bn because gas inflation not only increased bills but also the government increased corporate handouts to profiteering fossil fuel companies. And now Starmer has announced a further £22bn bung to the fossil fuel sector for carbon capture projects that don’t work.
With the potential of an automated system to replace capitalism, the government should fund robotics development to replace industries including Ratcliffe’s, while ensuring everyone has an equitable stake in the resulting society.
Featured image via the Canary
By James Wright
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