Starmer tells Sir Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK ‘colonised by immigrants’
Sir Keir Starmer has labelled comments about immigration made by billionaire Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe as “offensive and wrong”.
Sir Jim told Sky News the UK had been “colonised by immigrants” and suggested the prime minister was “too nice” to do “difficult things” to stabilise the nation’s economy.
Sir Keir responded by saying Britain was “a proud, tolerant and diverse country” and called on Sir Jim to apologise.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the comments “play into the hands of those who want to divide our country”.
Sir Jim told the broadcaster: “You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in.”
He added: “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, data from the Office for National Statistics estimates the UK’s population in mid-2025 was 69.4 million, compared with 66.7 million in mid-2020.
Show Racism the Red Card said the cultural influence held by football clubs “should be used to challenge racism, not inadvertently amplify narratives that undermine community harmony”, while Kick It Out said the comments were “disgraceful and deeply divisive”.
The 1958 Group of Manchester United supporters described the comments as “very ill-advised”, and criticised Sir Jim for “commenting on the issues of our country while living in Monaco to avoid paying tax”.
Sir Jim has restructured United since acquiring a 27.7% stake in 2024, making 450 redundancies, overhauling senior management and sacking two managers.
The 73-year-old likened the job of running the country to his stewardship of Manchester United, saying politicians needed to be “prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out”.
He told Sky News that although some of his decisions had been unpopular, he had had to make them “to get the big issues sorted out”.
“If you do difficult things, which we felt that we had to do at Manchester United… we felt like they were the right things to do. But you do become very unpopular for a while,” said Sir Jim.
He added: “But you’ve got all the same issues with the country. 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.”
