A new controversy has broken out in the United Kingdom. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned the co-owner of Manchester United, the legendary football club, for his remarks about immigration.
On Wednesday (February 11), the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated that Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe should apologise for his offensive comments that the country has been colonised by immigrants.
Responding to Ratcliffe’s remarks, Starmer wrote on X: “Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant, and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise.”
But who is Ratcliffe, and what did he say that has caused such an uproar? We have the answers.
In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, Ratcliffe noted that Britain has been “colonised” by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state.
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he added in the interview. “I mean, the UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.
“The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn’t it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”
However, these numbers don’t exactly match up to government data. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s population was 67 million in 2020 and 70 million in mid-2024.
Immigration has become a hot topic in Britain, with many believing that numbers are rising despite official data stating otherwise. Net migration to the UK fell by more than two-thirds to a post-pandemic low in the year ending June 2025, but 67 per cent of the people polled thought it had increased.
In the interview, Ratcliffe further stated that he didn’t think Starmer was the right man for the job. “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. 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.”
Weighing in on the immigration in Britain, Ratcliffe added, “If you really want to deal with the major issues of immigration, with people opting to take benefits rather than working for a living, if you want to deal with that, then you’re going to have to do some things which are unpopular, and show some courage.”
Starmer hits back at Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe’s comments earned him a rebuke from UK PM Starmer and 10 Downing Street. Starmer stated that Britain was “a proud, tolerant and diverse country” and called on Ratcliffe to apologise.
A spokesperson for No 10 also urged the Manchester United co-owner to apologise, saying the comments “play into the hands of those who want to divide our country”.
Offensive and wrong.
Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country.
Jim Ratcliffe should apologise.https://t.co/7mSnVV33oo
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) February 11, 2026
Starmer’s Labour colleague Stella Creasy also rebuked Ratcliffe. She wrote on X: “Man U’s starting line-up last night would have been three players, and the bench would have consisted of just two. Ratcliffe doesn’t seem to understand the contribution they make to his own team, let alone this country, but then as he is an immigrant himself.”
Even Manchester United fans and groups have condemned Ratcliffe for his remarks.
Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club also said it was “deeply concerned” by the remarks, adding that the term colonised “is not neutral”.
“It echoes language frequently used in far-right narratives that frame migrants as invaders and demographic threats,” it added.
Anti-discrimination group Show Racism The Red Card, in a statement, warned that public figures “must recognise the weight and consequences of their words.” They added that to frame diversity as a colonisation “reinforces harmful stereotypes and emboldens those who seek to divide.”
Notably, Ratcliffe’s remarks were shared on X by
Tommy Robinson, widely regarded as a far-right agitator in the UK.
The controversial Jim Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe has become a household name across Great Britain after he completed a £1.25 billion (Rs 15,418 crore) deal for a 27.7 per cent stake, which was later increased to 28.94 per cent in 2024.
But that’s not Ratcliffe’s only claim to fame. Born in 1952, the septuagenarian is known to be one of Britain’s richest men and the country’s ‘most successful post-war industrialist’.
He studied chemical engineering at the University of Birmingham before working for oil giant Esso. He took a break to do an MBA at the London Business School in the late 1970s and ended up at a US private equity group, Advent International.
At the age of 40, Ratcliffe took the plunge into entrepreneurship when he and a partner bought a chemicals business from BP in 1992 and formed a company called Inspec. In 1998, he turned Inspec into Ineos and signed several deals that propelled it into a chemical giant. Today, Ineos makes chemicals involved in everything from packaging production to the synthesis of insulin. It employs 19,000 people globally and has sales of $60 billion.
Ratcliffe holds strong opinions on fracking, which has led him to clash with environmentalists.
But his biggest controversy has been around his taxes. In 2020, his decision to move his residency from Britain to Monaco, a tax haven, drew some public ire. Moreover, Ineos relocated its headquarters from the UK to Switzerland between 2010 and 2016 to save an estimated £100 million a year in corporation tax.
Many have also claimed that Ratcliffe’s stake in Manchester United, and other sporting ventures — he purchased Swiss football team Lausanne-Sport in 2017 and has invested £110 million into Olympic sailor Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team — are efforts in sportswashing. At the time of the United acquisition, Greenpeace noted, “Ineos is a major producer of plastic, toxic pesticides and fossil fuels, as well as one of the UK’s leading fracking firms. Having already plastered its brand all over cycling, sailing, football, running, and rugby, Ineos is the undisputed champion of sportswashing.”
Some of his
decisions at Manchester United have also led him to be vilified by the team’s fans and supporters. Under his direction, the Club has cut its annual contributions to a charity supporting former players, raised ticket prices, ended Sir Alex Ferguson’s ambassadorial contract, and closed its staff canteen. But Ratcliffe has defended these choices, telling Gary Neville in an interview last year, “Manchester United would have run out of money at the end of this year.”
Ratcliffe’s remarks against immigration risks further angering fans.
With inputs from agencies
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