Nigel Farage has defended Jim Ratcliffe, describing him as a “refugee of the British tax system” and saying his comments on immigration were “correct.”
The Brexit billionaire sparked controversy this week after making inflammatory comments claiming the United Kingdom had been ‘colonised’ by immigrants.
He also falsely claimed that the British population had ‘grown by 12 million’ since 2020.
The comments prompted widespread condemnation and Ratcliffe has since apologised for his choice of wording.
READ NEXT: Green MP delivers spot-on takedown of Nadine Dorries and Reform UK
Ratcliffe has also been criticised for his hypocrisy in hitting out at tax-paying immigrants whilst he’s lived in Monaco since 2020, a move that has reportedly seen him save around £4bn in tax.
On both these factors, Reform leader Nigel Farage unsurprisingly has no issue with Ratcliffe.
This was laid bare when he appeared on Sky News on Thursday evening, where it was put to him by Matt Barbet that Ratcliffe is an economic migrant.
Farage then had the audacity to claim that Ratcliffe was a sort of refugee.
“He would probably argue that he’s a refugee from the British tax system,” he said.
As Barbet continued to point out how Ratcliffe was quite clearly an economic migrant in Monaco, given that he is neither French or Monegasque, Farage wasn’t having it.
“He’s a tax migrant,” he said.
When he argued that Ratcliffe was “spending a lot of money in Monaco”, Barbett pointed out that at the same time Ratcliffe’s company Ineos had cut hundreds of jobs in the UK.
Along with defending Ratcliffe for not paying billions in UK tax, Farage also predictably said his colonisation comments were correct.
When he was asked if the language was offensive, Farage said: “I think it’s probably in the dictionary definition correct, but perhaps people aren’t quite ready for it.”