Jim Ratcliffe has accused Labour of ‘economic vandalism on an industrial scale’ after ‘ridiculously high’ gas prices prompted the tycoon to mothball three vital chemical plants.

Ratcliffe's company Ineos said that as many as 4,000 jobs at the sites in Hull and across the wider supply chain could be affected if they close down permanently.

The factories produce raw materials – exported across Europe – for a range of goods including pharmaceuticals, clothes, cosmetics, detergents, building materials and military explosives.

Ratcliffe, the billionaire tycoon behind the Ineos industrial empire, said: ‘I’m sure people will find it hard to believe that we are being forced to mothball some of the most efficient plants in Europe but with gas prices now 12 times the level in the US and 8 times that of China, we just cannot compete.'

Replacement products from the US have twice the carbon footprint – and those from China eight times – of those made at the more efficient Hull plants, Ratcliffe added.

‘Not only is the ridiculously high gas price in the UK destroying our manufacturing base and the jobs of hard-working people on Humberside, it is also massively increasing the environmental burden.

‘The UK government’s energy policy is leading to economic vandalism on an industrial scale, exporting jobs to China and the United States and driving up global CO2 emissions at a stroke.’

Gas prices have been soaring, along with oil, after Donald Trump’s Iran war resulted in energy supplies from the Middle East being choked off.

But the government’s critics say its opposition to new North Sea drilling and continued windfall taxes on UK oil and gas operators have made the situation worse.

By hobbling the domestic supply of energy, the policies make Britain increasingly reliant on imports from overseas at a time of global volatility.

Ineos directly employs 245 people at the Hull plants. They are expected to be kept on for the time being as the plant is idled. Operations could be restarted if Ineos buys cheaper liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from the US, or wait for UK prices to go down.

Gas is critical to the factories as it is used both as an energy source and an ingredient in the chemicals production process.

Two of the plants have already ceased production with the third due to come offline in coming days, Ineos said.

The move comes after Ineos last October cut 60 jobs at the site blaming ‘dirt-cheap carbon-heavy’ imports from China flooding the market.

Reform deputy leader Richard Tice said: 'This is a devastating indictment of the failed energy policies that have left British industry on its knees.

'If we want high-skilled manufacturing jobs to stay in Hull and across the UK, we must stop driving our industries overseas and start making British energy cheap, secure and competitive once again.’

Ratcliffe’s comments are just his latest broadside against Labour, days after he said he had lost confidence in the UK and said it was ‘on the slide’.

The businessman – best known as a major backer of Manchester United football club – warned the country’s decline was due to the party’s failure to tackle welfare and immigration and also took aim at its high tax burden.

And Ratcliffe told the BBC that failing to invest further in North Sea oil and gas amounted to ‘insanity’.

Earlier this month, Ineos chairman Brian Gilvary warned that ‘years of policy instability’ over the industry had caused investment to dry up.

Separately this week, a North Sea business task force called for the windfall tax on oil and gas firms to be scrapped as it revealed 25,000 jobs in the industry have been lost since Labour came to power.