British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on Manchester United’s billionaire co-owner Jim Ratcliffe to apologize for claiming Britain was “colonized by immigrants”.
Starmer said on Wednesday that Ratcliffe’s comments were “offensive and wrong”, adding: “Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country.”
Ratcliffe, who founded the petrochemical company Ineos, is one of Britain’s richest men. He made the inflammatory comments to Sky News in a wide-ranging interview published early Wednesday.
“I don’t think the (British) economy is in a good place,” he said. “You can’t have an economy where nine million people are on benefits and you have huge numbers of immigrants coming in. So Britain is being colonized. It’s too expensive. Britain has been colonized by immigrants, isn’t it?”
He cited incorrect demographic statistics, claiming the UK’s population had increased from 58 million in 2020 to 70 million now. In fact, the Office for National Statistics estimates that the UK’s population increased from 67 million to 69.5 million in 2020.
CNN has reached out to Ineos for comment.
Ratcliffe, who is Britain’s seventh richest person with a net worth of around 17 billion pounds ($23 billion), according to the Sunday Times Rich List, moved to Monaco tax-free in 2020.
In December 2025, his company Ineos accepted a support package of more than 120 million pounds ($164 million) from the British government to save its chemical factory in Grangemouth, Scotland, from closing with the loss of 500 jobs. Ineos has also invested £150 million ($205 million) in the site.
Successive British governments have pledged to cut immigration, and as in other Western countries, this has become a political flashpoint.
Net migration to the UK reached a record level in 2022, boosted by the war in Ukraine and the lifting of travel restrictions after the pandemic, but has since fallen sharply.
Ratcliffe’s comments drew criticism from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who said they were “completely out of step with British values”, and from several Manchester United supporter groups.
Manchester United Supporters Trust said the club “belongs to all of its supporters”.
“No fan should feel excluded from following or supporting the club because of their race, religion, nationality or background,” it added. “Comments from senior management at the club should make acceptance easier, not harder.”
Stretford Sikh Supporters Club highlighted the contribution of immigrants to the city of Manchester, warning that “using language that alienates the very people who built this city and supported this club is dangerous and divisive.”
Ratcliffe’s comments echo those of Britain’s right-wing populist party, Reform Britain, which links anti-immigration messages to defending the country.
Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club said the use of the word colonize “reflects language frequently used in far-right narratives that view immigrants as invaders and demographic threats”.
“Such rhetoric has real-world consequences,” the group added. “The UK has seen a sustained rise in hate crime in recent years, including Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racially motivated attacks and growing hostility towards immigrants and people of color.”
