Manchester United co-owner and INEOS founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has ignited political debate after claiming the UK has been “colonised by immigrants” and suggesting Prime Minister Keir Starmer may be “too nice” to tackle the country’s mounting challenges.
Speaking in an interview with Sky News, Ratcliffe argued that the UK economy cannot sustain high levels of immigration alongside what he described as a significant number of people receiving state benefits.“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” Ratcliffe said. “
The UK has been colonised. It’s costing too much money.”He added: “The population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”However, figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate the UK population was approximately 67 million in mid-2020 and 70 million in mid-2024.
The population stood at around 58.9 million in 2000.Ratcliffe said the government must be prepared to take difficult and potentially unpopular decisions to address economic and social pressures.“I think it needs somebody who’s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out,” he said, describing Starmer as possessing positive attributes but facing a “tough job.”
The billionaire businessman also referred to Reform UK leader Nigel Farage as “intelligent” and “with good intentions,” adding that he believed the Prime Minister shared similar qualities.
A vocal supporter of Brexit, Ratcliffe has previously criticised successive Conservative governments for failing to reduce net migration following the UK’s departure from the European Union. In the interview, he said Brexit “didn’t turn out how people anticipated,” noting that immigration had been central to the 2016 referendum campaign.
His remarks come amid renewed political focus on migration, with government data showing tens of thousands of migrants arriving in recent months, including Channel crossings by small boats.
January arrivals were lower than in previous years, a decrease widely attributed to severe winter weather.Ratcliffe also called for stronger economic leadership, urging the UK to become “sharper on the business front” and prioritise competitive energy costs to drive growth.
