Man Utd chief Jim Ratcliffe brings again vile migration rhetoric after grim ‘colonised by immigrants’ row
Sir Jim Ratcliffe said he ‘has no confidence in the UK’ and that immigration was ‘clearly’ a problem – months after he controversially claimed the country had been ‘colonised’
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has made new comments on immigration(Image: Bo Amstrup/EPA/Shutterstock)
Billionaire Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has claimed Britain is in decline because of immigration in a bizarre new rant.
The Ineos founder – who moved to Monaco in 2020 – said he has “no confidence in the UK” and that the country is “on the slide”. It follows his controversial comments made earlier this year that the nation had been “colonised by immigrants”, which were slammed by then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Pep Guardiola, and multiple Manchester United supporter groups.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has more recently become the focus of protests by United fans for his sweeping cost-cutting measures at Old Trafford, including the mass suspension of loyal season ticket holders.
He told the BBC’s Big Boss Interview: “I think the UK, unfortunately, it was a fantastic place. We had the greatest empire in the world. We were a great people. We won two world wars. We’re good, honest folk.
“But unfortunately, at the moment, I think the UK is on the slide. It’s quite difficult to see how we arrest it. Two things: we need politicians who are tough enough to deal with some very difficult problems, and we know what the problems are.
“And we need politicians who will make decisions which are good for the country, not good for themselves and their party. And we haven’t had one of those for a long time.”
Asked what issues politicians should focus on, Sir Jim said immigration was “clearly one” as well as high taxes.
The billionaire also said failing to invest further in North Sea resources by handing licences for the Jackdaw and Rosebank oil and gas fields amounted to “insanity”, and warned the UK’s reliance on energy imports meant the country could “run out of gas” if there was a cold spell this winter. He said: “The risk you’ve got this winter is that we run out of gas. If we have a really sharp cold spell, then there is conceivably the possibility that we’ll run out of gas and have to switch the industry off.”
Sir Jim also said the UK had “a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment”, “encouraging” the wealthiest to relocate.
He told the podcast: “In America they applaud people who create wealth. And the good thing about those people who create wealth is that they then spend that wealth in the economy in which they’re resident.
“Unfortunately, the UK has got a bit of a green eye towards wealth at the moment. And, unfortunately, with the things that they’ve been doing, they’ve been encouraging the people who have created wealth to leave the UK because it’s just become uncomfortable for them for tax reasons or whatever. Also, crime on the streets has gone up as well, which doesn’t help.”
Asked if he was planning on returning to the UK, the businessman said: “Not at the moment, no. I don’t see growth being tackled. I would like to see the benefits bill cut in half and all the savings spent on robotics and AI.”
Sir Jim said he doubted whether AI leave many jobless, but added: “It’s going to have fundamental changes to the way in which we live, the way in which we work, and the UK is nowhere at the moment in those two technologies.”
