Britain has been “colonised” by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the country’s richest and most influential men, has told Sky News.
Sir Jim, the founder of the INEOS chemicals group and part-owner of Manchester United, warned that Britain faces profound political, social and economic challenges, among them an unprecedented rise in immigration in recent years.
“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said. “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.
The UK population was estimated at 58.9 million in 2000.
Sir Keir Starmer responded to Sir Jim’s remarks on immigration, saying they were “offensive and wrong”.
“Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country,” the prime minister added. “Jim Ratcliffe should apologise.”
In his interview with Sky News, Sir Jim – who is a resident of Monaco – signalled that Sir Keir might not be the right man for the top job, saying: “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.”
The chemicals boss said he had met…
