£1bn boost for 3000 oilworkers
BITE AS BAD AS BARK
RUTHLESS Ratcliffe once plotted to sack 1400 workers as he relaxed on his £130million yacht.
Raised in a council house on the outskirts of Manchester, he is now the richest person in the UK, having amassed a £21billion fortune.
Two years ago, Ineos became the biggest private player in the North Sea when he snapped up Dong Energy for £1billion.
Weeks earlier, he struck a deal to buy BP’s Forties pipeline, which brings 40 per cent of UK North Sea oil ashore.
He was knighted for his services to business and investment in 2018.
The dad of two is nicknamed Dr No by union bosses and JR, after oil tycoon JR Ewing from 80s US series Dallas.
Ratcliffe has battled workers, unions and government bosses in his rise to the top.
He’s still locked in a legal stand-off with the Scottish Government over a block on fracking announced in 2015.
He stunned Scotland in 2013 when, during a row over the suspension of a shop steward at Grangemouth, he announced the plant would shut down.
Workers accepted huge cuts to pensions and conditions in return for it staying open.
At the time, the Daily Record told how he oversaw events while holidaying on his superyacht in France
In June 2014, we told how Ratcliffe stumped up £1000 to help build a playpark in Oban after initially snubbing an appeal by six-year-old Ruairi Cottier.