My wife's glad I turned down a knighthood!!: Vitol boss Ian Taylor was set for an honour, then deals with Iraq and Iran engulfed him in scandal

Ian Taylor, pictured with wife Tina, withdrew his name from consideration for an honour

You cannot get much closer to Buckingham Palace than the glass and steel headquarters of oil giant Vitol.

But even though its office overlooks Her Majesty's main residence, boss Ian Taylor will not be visiting any time soon.

As one of the biggest private financial backers of David Cameron's Remain campaign – donating £350,000 – Taylor had expected to be invited over the road to the Palace to receive a knighthood.

Then the knives came out. The history of Vitol's operations in some of the world's nastiest neighbourhoods were laid bare again: it had been fined £13million in 2007 after admitting illicit payments to the Iraqi state oil company, and in 2012 had traded oil with Iran after EU sanctions had been put in place.

Taylor, 60, pre-empted an embarrassing row and withdrew his name from consideration for an honour.

For weeks he was angry, upset at being put through the wringer.

No stranger to controversy – in 2011 he was named as a guest at a private dinner with the then prime minister, and in 2013 had donated £500,000 to the Better Together campaign in the Scottish referendum – he was frustrated at not being given the chance to explain how Vitol actually worked.

He'd also wanted to explain how he was committed to Britain through, among other things, the rescue of the iconic Harris Tweed weaving industry.

In the months that have passed, however, the wiry, cherub-faced mogul, who has an estimated £175million fortune, has calmed down.

When we meet he declares the lost knighthood as 'not important'.

'There was a lot of nonsense being written,' he says.

'Bluntly my wife Tina hates publicity and the honour was becoming a major distraction,' adds the businessman.

But surely she was disappointed in not becoming Lady Taylor?

Taylor replies: 'To be honest she wants to lead a normal life where she can walk around and not have anybody approach her. She's got lots of things she likes to do. So no is the answer.'

Some resentment still lingers though, particularly about how he was picked on during the referendum.

'We didn't break any Iranian sanctions,' he insists.

'We had a subsidiary in the Middle East which brought a cargo of fuel oil which originated from Iran.

'The Americans imposed tougher rules. Once we realised the mistake, we didn't buy any more.'

T AYLOR felt singled out. It's a fact of the work Vitol does – transporting and refining oil – that it involves working in what can be nasty environments. Vitol has been dubbed the biggest company you've never heard of.

The last published accounts for the 2014 financial year show the company had a turnover of £240billion. It is the type of sales figures that big corporations such as Volkswagen and Tesco can only dream of.

The company makes its money largely by trading and moving crude oil – around six million barrels a day, some 6 per cent of global supply.

Opera lover who saved Harris Tweed  

Name: Ian Taylor, 56, chief executive, Vitol. Married to Tina. They have four children ages 15 to 28, two boys, two girls 

Education: King's Macclesfield. Studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford

Daily Routine: He has porridge for breakfast then travels to work on Southern Rail which he brands 'a disgrace'. 

He'll arrive at the office at 7.45am. His day is a combination of internal and external meetings and spends a lot of time meeting people. 

On the day of this interview he was seeing a Kurdish and a Namibian delegation, then that evening was heading off to a meeting of oil cartel Opec

Other businesses: He owns restaurants in Wimbledon and rescued Harris Tweed

Favourite things: He's reading Greenspan by Sebastian Mallaby and is fond of political biographies. 

He's a big fan of the film The Shawshank Redemption and is chairman of the Royal Opera House: 'I love the performing arts'. 

He is the originator of the Schools' Matinees there, which brings kids to productions of ballet and opera. 'Bluntly, I pay for them,' he jokes

Part of its success has been thanks to its readiness to do business in corners of the world from which others would run a mile.

That's probably why Vitol is still largely unknown in Britain. It is run as a partnership, the same corporate structure as used by the big audit firms, and its accounts are published in Rotterdam, the city where it was founded 50 years ago.

Even though Taylor works mainly out of his London office, the group's headquarters are in the Dutch city, which is the largest cargo port in Europe.

The importance of Rotterdam to the company is signalled by the huge photo of Vitol's glistening state-of-the-art refining plant in the foyer of the offices.

With 40 offices round the world, Taylor has a vested interest in the free movement of labour to the UK, not least because he also owns a couple of small restaurants near Wimbledon in south-west London, close to where he lives.

When he moved there several years ago he was disappointed that in such a well-to-do London suburb there were so few decent independent eateries. So he decided to open his own.

It demonstrates how Taylor is a pragmatist – reflected in his changing views on Brexit.

'We are still going to be an important financial centre, we are going to be a welcoming place and we are not going to turn in on ourselves,' he says.

This attitude is one that makes him stand out from many of his peers. Unlike some devoted Remainers in the City, he has also moved on and is determined to make Brexit work for his business empire and the country.

But he worries about freedom of movement of labour after Brexit. 'It's going to have to be a very good visa system and flexible visa system. 

'I've a lot of faith in the quality of our civil servants. But I'm a bit worried that it gets too bureaucratic.

'Some governments are a little dismissive and disparaging of Britain at present. There's no doubt about it.'

He's also become distinctly philosophical. 'Even if the EU club is falling apart, and it may well fall apart, I always felt it was the right thing to be at the table.

'Trying to make the kind of Europe that I think we probably all believe in.

'A free market economically, not a political union,' he says.

'I felt we were beginning to win that battle.'

Taylor has spoken in the past of his typical British working-class childhood: he spent part of his youth in Manchester thanks to his father's job as a manager at British chemicals giant ICI. His family is Scottish, but he was educated in Macclesfield.

After joining Shell the firm sent him around the world, and he spent time in Venezuela and met his wife Tina before moving to Singapore.

He joined Vitol from Shell in 1985 and rose to chief executive. He is one of 350 partners, each of whom has 'equity' in the enterprise.

As a British and Scottish patriot one of the things Taylor is most proud of is his rescue of the Harris Tweed industry which he says he did for his 'grandfather and father'.

He is full of praise for the crofters and weavers working there. Taylor notes: 'It's tough, very hard-core in the winter.'

But typically where Taylor tries to do the right thing, others have found criticism, suggesting he has been unduly ruthless in restoring the brand to health and making it profitable again.

'It's doing fabulously, and I am delighted with it,' he says.

All the money goes back into a business which employs 100 people and Taylor says he takes no salary or a bonus.

Not that this came up in last June's referendum.

The fact that his involvement in referendum politics led to his reputation being besmirched clearly rankles.

But Taylor has picked himself up and his tankers sail-on across the high seas.

 

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