Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe's claim that the "UK has been colonised by immigrants" has been described as "disgraceful" by football's leading anti-discrimination organisation.
The billionaire, who is founder and chairman of one of the world's largest chemical companies, Ineos, said in an interview with Sky News that politicians needed to "do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track."
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 colonised. It's costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it?"
The prime minister has condemned Sir Jim Ratcliffe's "offensive and wrong" remarks about immigration.
In a post on X responding to the interview, Sir Keir Starmer said, "Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."
Sir Jim, the founder of the INEOS chemicals group, also claimed to Sky's economics and data editor Ed Conway immigration had pushed the country's population from 58 million in 2020 to 70 million in 2026.
The Office for National Statistics estimates the population of the UK was 67 million in mid-2020 and 70 million in mid-2024. It was estimated at 58.9 million in 2000.
