saying it was \u201cdeeply concerned by recent remarks\u201d<\/a> by Ratcliffe and warning that the language he used, describing immigrants as \u201ccolonisers\u201d, echoes \u201clanguage freuqently used in far-right narratives that frame migrants as invaders and demographic threats.\u201d<\/p>\nThe group cited increased hate crime figures against Muslim and Jewish communities, and warned that the use of \u201cextremist talking points\u201d could legitimise \u201cprejudice and deepen division.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Manchester United Supporters\u2019 Trust also condemned the comments, saying: \u201cManchester United belongs to all of its supporters. No fan should feel excluded from following or supporting the club because of their race, religion, nationality or background. Comments from the club\u2019s senior leadership should make inclusion easier, not harder. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about politics; it is about ensuring that the custodians of Manchester United act in a way that unites supporters rather than marginalising any part of our fanbase.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the interview, Ratcliffe said the UK needs a prime minister who is \u201cprepared to be unpopular \u2026 to get the big issues sorted\u201d, comparing that role to his own at United, where he has been \u201cvery unpopular\u201d because of the changes made since his arrival in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,\u201d Ratcliffe, 73, told Sky. \u201cI mean, the UK has been colonised. It\u2019s costing too much money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn\u2019t it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it\u2019s 70 million. That\u2019s 12 million people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s Office for National Statistics estimated that the UK population was 69.5 million in November 2025, compared to 67.1 million in 2020. The ONS also estimated that the UK\u2019s long-term net migration was 204,000 from 2024 to 2025.<\/p>\n
According to a House of Commons research briefing from January of this year there were 1.68 million people, as of December 2025, claiming unemployment-related benefits in the UK.<\/p>\n
Ratcliffe also told Sky that he had recently met with Nigel Farage, the Reform UK party leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Nigel is an intelligent man, and, I think he\u2019s got good intentions,\u201d Ratcliffe said. \u201cBut in a way, you could say exactly the same about (Labour leader) Keir Starmer. I think it needs somebody who\u2019s prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen quite a bit of this at the football club. If you do difficult things, which we felt that we had to do at Manchester United \u2026 we felt like they were the right things to do. But you do become very unpopular for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reform leader Farage posted in support of Ratcliffe on Wednesday night, as England\u2019s most famous football team suddenly found itself. He said: \u201cBritain has undergone unprecedented mass immigration that has changed the character of many areas in our country. Labour may try and ignore that but Reform won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ratcliffe\u2019s comments have also been shared on X by Tommy Robinson, widely regarded as a far-right agitator in the UK.<\/p>\n
Anti-discrimination group Show Racism The Red Card released a statement on Wednesday night, in which they warned that public figures \u201cmust recognise the weight and consequences of their words.\u201d They added that to frame diversity as a colonisation \u201creinforces harmful stereotypes and emboldens those seek to divide.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athletic also reached out on Wednesday evening to the office of Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, asking if he wished to comment on the remarks made by Ratcliffe or comment on what he considers to be the principles of the area. A spokesperson said they were unable to accommodate that request on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n
Manchester United have recently entered a strategic partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Trafford Council to link the club\u2019s new stadium project with the regeneration of the wider Trafford Wharfside area. Mayor Burnham has previously described the stadium proposals<\/a> as \u201cthe biggest opportunity for urban regeneration this country has seen since London 2012 and an important part of our 10-year plan to turbocharge growth not only around Old Trafford but across Greater Manchester.\u201d<\/p>\nThe Athletic has approached Manchester United for comment about Ratcliffe\u2019s comments, as well as the club\u2019s executive co-chairmen Joel and Avram Glazer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has been condemned by the United Kingdom\u2019s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5343,59,57,58,349,50,221,3564,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-420767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-culture","9":"tag-gb","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-greatbritain","12":"tag-manchester-united","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-premier-league","15":"tag-sports-business","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}