LONDON, Feb 12 – British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has labelled comments about immigration made by billionaire Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe as “offensive and wrong”.
Sir Jim, founder of one of the world’s largest chemical companies, Ineos, told Sky News on Wednesday that the UK had been “colonised by immigrants” and suggested the prime minister was “too nice” to do “difficult things” to stabilise the country’s economy.
In his rebuke on Wednesday evening, Sir Keir added that Britain was “a proud, tolerant and diverse country” and called on Sir Jim to apologise.
A spokesperson for No 10 also called on the businessman to apologise, saying the comments “play into the hands of those who want to divide our country”.
The 73-year-old said politicians needed to be “prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out”.
Sir Jim has restructured United since acquiring a 27.7% stake in 2024, making 450 redundancies, overhauling senior management and sacking two managers.
He said that although some of his decisions had been unpopular, he had had to make them “to get the big issues sorted out”.
“If you do difficult things, which we felt that we had to do at Manchester United… we felt like they were the right things to do. But you do become very unpopular for a while,” said Sir Jim.
He added: “But you’ve got all the same issues with the country. If you really want to deal with the major issues of immigration, with people opting to take benefits rather than working for a living, if you want to deal with that, then you’re going to have to do some things which are unpopular, and show some courage.”