Billionaire Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has sparked controversy after saying that Britain is being “colonised by immigrants”.
The businessman, who has been living in tax-free Monaco since 2020, is founder and chair of one of the world’s largest chemical companies, Ineos, which was granted £120m in UK state aid to protect jobs last year.
Mr Ratcliffe said that immigration is “costing too much money” due to the number of people “on benefits” in an interview with Sky News on Wednesday.
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. “I mean, the UK is being colonised. It’s costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants.”
He then went on to share dubious information on population statistics in the UK.
“I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million,” he said. “That’s 12 million people.”
The Office for National Statistics estimates that the population of the UK was in fact 67 million in 2020 and was last close to 58 million over a quarter of a century ago in 2000.
He said that addressing the “major issues of immigration” and people choosing benefits over work would require “unpopular” actions and “courage”, despite Ineos employing more than 26,000 people across 194 sites in 29 countries across the world.
Mr Ratcliffe was one of the most vocal proponents of Brexit before moving to Monaco in its aftermath.
As Prime Minister Keir Starmer resisted calls to quit amid the fallout from the latest release of the Epstein files citing the “fighting against Reform UK, Mr Ratcliffe said Sir Keir was “too nice”.
“I don’t know whether it’s just the apparatus that hasn’t allowed Keir to do it or, or he’s maybe too nice – I mean, Keir is a nice man,” he said. “I like him, but it’s a tough job and I think you have to do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track, because at the moment I don’t think the economy is in a good state.”
Describing Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as an “intelligent man” with “good intentions”, he acknowledged that similar thoughts had been expressed about Sir Keir as he entered government.
“I think it needs somebody who’s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out,” he concluded.
He compared his experience of managing Manchester United to turning the country around, explaining he had also been “unpopular” at the start of his tenure.
Sir Jim acquired a minority stake in Manchester United in late 2023, with his Ineos group subsequently assuming control of the club’s football operations.
His tenure has already seen a number of contentious changes, particularly concerning ticket pricing and availability, which have drawn significant ire from United fans.
