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Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has responded to calls to apologise for controversial remarks on immigration by saying he was “sorry” for offending “some people” but insisting it was “important to raise the issue”.
The Manchester United co-owner was criticised on Wednesday by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and anti-discrimination groups after he said Britain had been “colonised by immigrants”.
In a statement on Thursday, Ratcliffe said he was “sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe and caused concern, but it is important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth”.
“My intention was to stress that governments must manage migration alongside investment in skills, industry and jobs so that long-term prosperity is shared by everyone,” added the billionaire, who has lived in Monaco since 2020.
“It is critical that we maintain an open debate on the challenges facing the UK.”
Downing Street on Thursday welcomed Ratcliffe’s statement, saying it was “right” that the businessman apologised for his “offensive and wrong” comments.
Starmer, who last year told Labour conference that the UK faced a future of “decency or division”, had on Wednesday called on Ratcliffe to apologise.
“Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise,” Starmer wrote on X.
The prime minister is keen to appeal to more left-leaning MPs and voters following a tumultuous week in Westminster, as the fallout from the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal deepened and triggered exits from his top team.
In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, Ratcliffe said: “You can’t have an economy with 9mn people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in.”
He added: “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 58mn in 2020, now it’s 70mn. That’s 12mn people.”
The UK’s population was 66.7mn in mid-2020, rising to 69.4mn in mid-2025, according to estimates by the Office for National Statistics.
Kick It Out, the leading anti-discrimination organisation in British football, said: “Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments are disgraceful and deeply divisive at a time when football does so much to bring communities together.”
Ratcliffe also said Starmer had a “tough job” but needed to “do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track”.
The government should be led by “somebody who’s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out”, he added.
Ratcliffe praised Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, which is leading national opinion polls, as an “intelligent man” with “good intentions”. But he added that “in a way, you could say exactly the same about Keir, when Keir came in”.