From his private island in the Caribbean, Sir Richard Branson is trying to convince the UK government to give his Virgin Atlantic airline a £500m bailout to help it survive the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout of the lockdown. The billionaire, who also wants £700m from the Australian government to bailout Virgin Australia, has the backing of bosses at Airbus, which makes Virgin’s planes, and Rolls-Royce, which makes its jet engines, who have warned ministers that if the airline collapsed it could drag them down too.
At the weekend, Manchester Airports Group chief, Charlie Cornish, added his name to the list of travel industry bosses desperate for Virgin to survive, saying in a letter to chancellor, Rishi Sunak, that Virgin flights “are directly benefiting the economies of Manchester and the surrounding region”.
He said: “Virgin Atlantic’s growth in capacity has been essential in allowing Manchester to become one of the best-connected European airports to the US.” Branson, who founded Virgin Atlantic in 1984 and retains a 51% stake alongside US airline Delta with 49%, is pleading for UK government support. And he has the industry’s backing.
But Branson’s plea has prompted a substantial backlash, with many pointing out that the entrepreneur has paid the exchequer no personal income tax since moving to the tax free British Virgin Islands (BVI) 14 years ago. Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said it was unacceptable that “rich billionaires [were] milking the system” at a time of national crisis.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labour party, tweeted: “Richard flog your private island and pay your staff, we are in unprecedented times here. Now is the time your staff need support after making mountains of cash for the company.” It is not just Labour MPs who think the billionaire should dig into his own resources to help out in the current crisis. Richard Fuller, Conservative MP for North East Bedfordshire, told Branson to “pay your employees yourself their unpaid leave”.
