Billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who moved to tax-free Monaco in 2020, has claimed that the UK is being “colonised” by immigrants, while criticising welfare spending and the state of the British economy.
Speaking to Sky News, Britain’s seventh-richest man and part-owner of Manchester United targeted immigration levels and the number of people receiving state support.
“You can’t afford … you can’t have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. “The UK is being colonised by immigrants, really, isn’t it?
“I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”
However, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) contradict his claim. The ONS estimates the UK population was about 67 million in 2020, with the population last near 58 million in 2000.
Ratcliffe’s comments come shortly after the UK government awarded a £120m grant to Ineos, the chemicals company that underpins much of his £17bn fortune, to protect 500 jobs.
The billionaire, a vocal supporter of Brexit, has previously lobbied against green taxes and in favour of fracking.
In the interview at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, he compared Labour leader Keir Starmer with Reform leader Nigel Farage, whom he described as an “intelligent man”.
Ratcliffe said he knew Starmer and added: “I don’t know whether it’s just the apparatus that hasn’t allowed Keir to do it or, or he’s maybe too nice – I mean, Keir is a nice man. I like him, but it’s a tough job and I think you have to do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track, because at the moment I don’t think the economy is in a good state.”
He said Farage was “an intelligent man, and I think he’s got good intentions”. “But in a way, you could say exactly the same about Keir, when Keir came in. I think it needs somebody who’s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out.”
Ratcliffe also likened his restructuring at Manchester United, including job cuts and the appointment and later dismissal of Ruben Amorim, to running a country. He said he had been “unpopular” but that the changes were starting to pay off.
“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,” he said, the government was “going to have to do some things which are unpopular, and show some courage”.
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