Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been heavily criticised for comments he made about immigrants
Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been heavily criticised for comments he made about immigrants
Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been reminded by the FA of his responsibilities as a senior participant in English football during interviews after he said that the the UK had been “colonised” by immigrants - but dodged any significant punishment.
The Ineos chief received huge backlash for his comments, prompting him to backtrack on what he said, with the figures he produced in the interview with Sky News proving to be wide of the mark.
Ratcliffe has never been shy in speaking about cultural and political issues and the United co-owner claimed that immigrants were draining resources from the state.
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? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it's 70 million. That's 12 million people."
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the population of the UK was 67 million in mid-2020 and 70 million in mid-2024 - proving that Ratcliffe's numbers were wrong.
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A spotlight was quickly shone by a number of major figures, including the Prime Minister who called on him to apologise, as well as several United fan groups who pointed at the number of foreign players in the Red Devils' squad.
Other politicians - including Andy Burnham and Ed Davey - joined Starmer in condemning the remarks made by Ratcliffe, but Reform leader Nigel Farage and former PM Liz Truss released statements which backed up his comments.
Ratcliffe later said he was sorry his “choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe”.
Sir Kier Starmer was quick to call out the Man Utd co-owner (
Image:
Leon Neal/Getty Images)
United boss Michael Carrick had to face the media on Friday for the first time since Ratcliffe’s remarks, but stopped short of involving himself. He said: “Sir Jim has made a statement, and then the club’s made a statement on the back of it so for me to add to that is not my place.
“What I can say is, as I’ve been around this club many, many years, we always make a huge impact globally. We’re really proud of the environment and the culture that we’ve got at the club, and equality and diversity and respect for each other is something that we look to carry through every day.”
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