Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe is facing a growing backlash after claiming this week that the United Kingdom had been “colonised by immigrants”, stoking racial hostilities pushed by the far right.

Politicians, campaigners and fan groups condemned the billionaire’s remarks made in an interview with Sky News broadcast on Wednesday, which saw him suggest “huge levels of immigration” had damaged the economy.

“You can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” he said, prompting Prime Minister Keir Starmer to demand on X that he apologise for his “offensive and wrong” comments.

Posting on X on Thursday, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, a member of Starmer’s Labour Party, said Ratcliffe should withdraw his “inaccurate, insulting, inflammatory” depiction of immigrants as “a hostile invading force”.

Burnham noted that footballers who had come from all over the world to play in Manchester and people working in the National Health Service (NHS) and other essential services had “enhanced the life of our city-region”, suggesting that Monaco-based Ratcliffe had “spent years siphoning wealth” out of the club while making “little contribution” to local life.

Justice minister Jake Richards told the BBC’s breakfast programme that he viewed the tax exile’s comments as “absurd”. “Jim Ratcliffe has moved to Monaco to save 4-billion-pound [$5.5bn] worth of tax in this country. One might question whether he is the patriot we need to comment on this issue,” he said.

Recent protests against the club’s ownership will now likely expand.

Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club expressed outrage at Ratcliffe’s use of the word “colonised”, with its echoing of “far-right narratives that frame migrants as invaders and demographic threats”.

“Such rhetoric has real-world consequences,” said the group, pointing to a recent rise in race-motivated hostility that has coincided with surging support for the Reform UK party.

Rhetoric around immigration has hardened in recent years, with a wave of protests last summer outside hotels housing asylum seekers and widespread rioting in 2024, prompted by misinformation that a teenager who killed three young girls was a Muslim immigrant.

Other fan clubs piled on more condemnation of Ratcliffe, with the Rainbow Devils club for LGBTQ supporters expressing fears that his words could cause “real damage” to “minority communities in general, including many loyal Manchester United fans who are immigrants”.

The Manchester United Supporters’ Trust pointed out that the club’s leadership “should make inclusion easier, not harder”.

Ratcliffe, who founded chemical giant Ineos in 1998, bought a minority share in Manchester United in late 2023, subsequently leading to anger among fans over soaring ticket prices. (Alazeera)

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