Sir Jim Ratcliffe claims UK has been 'colonised by immigrants' in extraordinary rant

Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe is facing backlash after claiming that the UK has been 'colonised' by immigrants. Ratcliffe, who owns petrochemicals congress INEOS , also accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of being 'too nice'.

"You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in," Ratcliffe, 73, told Sky News . "I mean, the UK has been colonised. It's costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it?"

Inaccurately, the billionaire, who splits his time between Monaco and his waterside mansion in Hampshire, added: "I mean, the population of the UK was 58million in 2020, now it's 70million. That's 12million people."

It's estimated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that the population of the UK was 67million in mid-2020 and 70million in mid-2024. The UK population was estimated at 58.9million in 2000.

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Ratcliffe's comments sparked a wave of backlash, with one X user saying: "Says the man who resides in Monaco. Hypocrite." Another added: "What a disgusting man." A third posted: "Only 8 of Man Utd's squad are English. The guy is an idiot."

Discussing Starmer's suitability for PM, Ratcliffe also revealed that he recently met Reform leader Nigel Farage , describing him as 'intelligent'. "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," the United chief continued.

"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."

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Ratcliffe went on to say of Farage: "I think Nigel is an intelligent man, and, I think he's got good intentions. But in a way, you could say exactly the same about Keir Starmer. I think it needs somebody who's prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out."

Also in the interview, which took place at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, Ratcliffe described himself as 'very unpopular' in his role United. Since acquiring a minority stake in the Premier League giants in February 2024 and taking control of their footballing operations through INEOS, which also owns French club Nice , they've been through three managers while introducing various cost-cutting measures.

Ratcliffe is understood to have culled around 450 jobs during his tenure. "I've seen quite a bit of this at the football club. If you do difficult things, which we felt that we had to do at United... we felt like they were the right things to do. But you do become very unpopular for a while," he explained.

"I've been very unpopular at United because we've made lots of changes. But for the better, in my view. And I think we're beginning to see some evidence in the football club that that's beginning to pay off. 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."