Sir Jim Ratcliffe branded ‘shameful’ after ‘inflammatory’ rant claiming UK’s been ‘colonised’
In an inflammatory rant, Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe hit out at ‘huge levels of immigrants coming in’ and said too many people are on benefits in the UK
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been branded “shameful” after claiming that the UK has been “colonised by immigrants”(Image: PA)
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been branded “shameful” after claiming that the UK has been “colonised by immigrants”.
In an inflammatory rant, the Manchester United part-owner hit out at “huge levels of immigrants coming in” and said too many people are on benefits in the UK.
Sir Jim, who is the founder of the INEOS chemicals group, told Sky News: “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 colonised. It’s costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn’t it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”
In his interview, Sir Jim also said he had recently met Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and said he thinks “he’s got good intentions”. He questioned whether Keir Starmer was up to the top job or whether he was “too nice”.
READ MORE: Sir Jim Ratcliffe claims UK has been ‘colonised by immigrants’ in extraordinary rant
Labour MP Alex Sobel, whose parents came to England from Israel, hit out at the “outrageous” comments. He said: “My parents came to this country in the 1970s, contributing hugely as educators, business people, and volunteers in the community. Across this country, immigrants have contributed and enriched our culture.”
The MP for Leeds Central and Headingley added: “These are outrageous and inflammatory remarks from an out of touch multi millionaire businessman who clearly has no empathy with hard-pressed families. To seek to stigmatise immigrants and welfare claimants in this way is shameful.”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said she was proud that Britain is a diverse country. She said: “I think this country has many challenges, one of which is we haven’t invested in the skills of young people growing up for a very long time so that they can get those really great jobs. In many sectors, we are just reliant every year on bringing people in from outside.
“My dad comes from an immigrant background. I want your viewers to know that I am really proud that Britain is a diverse and tolerant country that is strengthened by waves of immigration.
“But you can’t have a system where we’re taking talent away from other countries because successive governments haven’t been bothered to invest in our own young people, and we are turning that around.”
She added that Sir Jim was “right” to say there were too many people who had been written off and were living on benefits. The Cabinet minister said: “I think he is right to say that there are too many people who we’ve written off, not allowed to make the contribution that they could make to this country, and we are particularly concerned about that as a government, especially when it comes to young people.”
She added that anyone who desperately needs the welfare state “will always have the support and protection they need”.
The Labour government last year attempted to push through welfare reforms but faced a major rebellion from MPs over plans to cut disability benefits. The Government was forced to gut its plans in July after a massive Labour revolt. It is now undertaking a major review of disability benefits in the hope it can relaunch a future package of reforms.
