British businessman Gerald Ratner urged BP on Thursday to acknowledge responsibility for the oil spill disaster in the US. “It’s completely my fault and I feel absolutely terrible about it’ - then you’ve got to move on” he said to rebuild the company’s success.

Speaking to the Human Resources Forum onboard the Arcadia, the once disgraced businessman, who has rebuilt his business life after overcoming ridicule and business failure after jokingly maligning products sold by his own company in the 1990s, said the advice was what “I would give anybody”. He was responding to a question from the audience after a 50-minute talk when he advised the oil giant to “get out of the gutter, and build BP again into a world-class business”.

To rebound from failure such as he experienced personally, Ratner said: “You have to be successful, even more successful than you were before.”

Ratner revealed that he succumbed to depression after his highly publicised gaffe and spent years in bed, watching TV. The turning point came when he took up cycling, he said. He went on to create a successful fitness club, which he sold after several years, and then returned to the jewellery business. His current jewellery enterprise, Gerald Online, enjoys sales of £75m.