UK's Starmer condemns billionaire Ratcliffe's immigration comments, calls for apology

LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday condemned comments by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who said Britain had been “colonised by immigrants” in a broadcast interview, calling the remarks offensive and urging him to apologise.

Ratcliffe, the founder of chemicals group INEOS and minority owner of Manchester United, told Sky News that Britain faced “huge levels of immigrants coming in” and argued that the country “has been colonised”, saying migration was “costing too much money”.

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“Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise,” Starmer said later in a post on X.

KEY CONTEXT

• Ratcliffe linked his comments to concerns about benefits, saying “you can’t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in.”

• Immigration is consistently among the top voter concerns in Britain according to opinion polls, and has helped fuel the rise of Nigel Farage’s right-wing populist party Reform UK.

• Official data also shows that around 10 million people of working age currently receive some kind of state benefit, though less than 1.7 million of these are classed as out-of-work claimants.

• The rise in population has been overwhelmingly driven by immigration. Studies consistently show migration has an overall positive impact on economic growth.

Reporting by Sam Tabahriti and William James; editing by Edward Tobin

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