Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has said the United Kingdom has been “colonised by immigrants” and needs a prime minister willing to be unpopular to fix major national issues.
Ratcliffe, who moved to Monaco in 2020, made the comments on the sidelines of the European Industry Summit in Antwerp. He was speaking to Sky News about the UK economy and his role at Manchester United.
The 73-year-old businessman said the UK cannot run an economy with “nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in”.
“The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn’t it?” he said. “I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it’s 70 million. That’s 12 million people.”
Official figures differ from his claims. The Office for National Statistics estimated the UK population at 67 million in mid-2020 and 70 million in mid-2024. The ONS also said long-term net migration was 204,000 between 2024 and 2025.
A House of Commons briefing from January 2025 showed 1.68 million people were claiming unemployment-related benefits as of December 2025.
Ratcliffe compared the role of prime minister to his own job at Manchester United. He said the UK needs a leader “prepared to be unpopular to get the big issues sorted”. He added that he had become “very unpopular” at the club because of changes made since his arrival in 2024.
The INEOS founder was attending the summit in Belgium alongside leaders from some of Europe’s largest economies, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German politician Friedrich Merz. The meeting brought together politicians and industrialists to discuss the future of Europe’s economy.
Ratcliffe also warned that the European chemicals sector is facing “unsurvivable conditions” due to a series of plant closures. He said these closures show the industry is under severe pressure.