Billionaire Manchester United co-owner sparks outrage by claiming UK ‘colonized by immigrants’

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on the billionaire co-owner of Manchester United Jim Ratcliffe to apologize for claiming the UK has been “colonized by immigrants.”

Starmer said Wednesday that Ratcliffe’s comments were “offensive and wrong,” adding that “Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country.”

Ratcliffe, who founded petrochemical company Ineos, is one of Britain’s richest men. He made his inflammatory comments to Sky News in a wide-ranging interview released earlier Wednesday.

“I don’t think the (British) economy is in a good place,” he said. “You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK has been colonized. It’s costing too much money. The UK has been colonized by immigrants, really, hasn’t it?”

He cited incorrect population figures, claiming the UK’s population had risen from 58 million in 2020 to 70 million people today. In reality, the UK’s population has increased from 67 million in 2020 to 69.5 million people, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics.

CNN has contacted Ineos for comment.

Ratcliffe, who is the seventh richest man in Britain with a net worth of around £17 billion ($23 billion) according to the Sunday Times Rich List, moved to tax-free Monaco in 2020.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called on Ratcliffe to apologize for his remarks. WPA Pool/Getty Images

In December 2025, his company Ineos accepted a support package from the British government worth over £120 million ($164 million) to prevent its chemical plant in Grangemouth, Scotland from closing with the loss of 500 jobs. Ineos also invested £150 million ($205 million) into the site.

Successive British governments have pledged to reduce immigration which, like in other Western countries, has become a political flashpoint.

Net migration to the UK reached record levels in 2022, swelled by the war in Ukraine and the post-pandemic lifting of travel restrictions, but has since dropped off sharply.

Ratcliffe’s comments drew criticism from Liberal Democrat party leader Ed Davey, who said they were “totally out of step with British values,” as well as from several Manchester United supporter groups.

The Manchester United Supporters Trust saidthe 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 the club’s senior leadership should make inclusion easier, not harder.”

The Stretford Sikhs supporters club emphasized immigrants’ contributions to the city of Manchester and warned that “using language that alienates the very people who built this city and support this club is dangerous and divisive.”

Ratcliffe’s comments align with the arguments made by Britain’s right-wing populist Reform UK party, which ties its anti-immigrant message to protecting the country.

The Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club said the use of the word colonized “echoes language frequently used in far-right narratives that frame migrants as invaders and demographic threats.”

“Such rhetoric has real-world consequences,” the group added. “The UK has experienced sustained increases in hate crimes in recent years, including rises in Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, racially motivated attacks, and hostility towards migrants and people of color.”

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