'UK has been colonised by immigrants'

[dutchman]

...says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe



Britain has been "colonised" by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the country's richest and most influential men, has told Sky News.

Sir Jim, the founder of the INEOS chemicals group and part-owner of Manchester United, warned that Britain faces profound political, social and economic challenges, among them an unprecedented rise in immigration in recent years.

"You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in," he said. "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 58 million in 2020, now it's 70 million. That's 12 million people."

In his interview with Sky News, Sir Jim - who is a resident of Monaco - signalled that Sir Keir might not be the right man for the top job, saying: "I don't know whether it's just the apparatus that hasn't allowed Keir to do it or, or he's maybe too nice - I mean, Keir is a nice man. I like him, but it's a tough job and I think you have to do some difficult things with the UK to get it back on track, because at the moment I don't think the economy is in a good state."

The chemicals boss said he had met recently with Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, saying of him: "I think Nigel is an intelligent man, and, I think he's got good intentions. But in a way, you could say exactly the same about Keir Starmer. I think it needs somebody who's prepared to be unpopular for a period of time to get the big issues sorted out."

Sir Jim continued: "Well, I've been very unpopular at Manchester United because we've made lots of changes. But for the better, in my view. And I think we're beginning to see some evidence in the football club that that's beginning to pay off.

"But you've got all the same issues with the country. If you really want to deal with the major issues of immigration, with people opting to take benefits rather than working for a living, if you want to deal with that, then you're going to have to do some things which are unpopular, and show some courage."

Sir Jim was talking on the fringes of the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, at which leaders from many of Europe's biggest economies, including France's Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Friedrich Merz, are meeting with industrialists to discuss the fate of its economy.

[rebbonk]

Unfortunately, it's not just the UK.

[rebbonk]

Kelvin MacKenzie responds...

[dutchman]

[dutchman]

Jim Ratcliffe is wrong. Idle Britons are the problem, not immigrants



It is the toughest time to find a job in Britain in years, with the unemployment rate nearing an 11-year-high.

Yet in the care sector, bosses are despairing over how difficult it is to find workers.

“We’ve had about three or four providers who have just closed their homes because they can’t get the workforce,” says Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association.

“The British workforce is just not coming forward.

“When they are, the job centre will send them to look at care as an option. They will agree to meet with a provider – and then either just not turn up, not take the role, or start for about a week and then not come back.”

Her comments confirm what experts have highlighted for years: even in a tough market, there are some jobs British people simply don’t want to do.

However, if Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to see what Britain would be like if it completely shut its doors to new migrants, the care sector is a good place to start.

The Government abruptly banned new visas for the sector last summer in a bid to reduce net migration and end “Britain’s failed experiment in open borders”.

Care homes have long struggled with crippling labour shortages, with the latest available data showing more than 100,000 roles going unfilled.

As Ahmed puts it: “It’s a really worthwhile job, but it’s not easy.”

In theory, there should be plenty of British people queuing up to take these jobs.

After all, the UK’s youth unemployment rate is currently at 16.1pc – higher than Greece’s for the first time since records began half a century ago.

Yet even when care homes receive job applications from British applicants, it often ends up being a waste of time.

“One provider told us that they had about 80 applications for a job for an activities coordinator in their care home,” says Ahmed. “Not one of them turned up for the interview.”

Similarly, replacing one foreign worker requires several British staff, she adds.

“The international visa has certain restrictions to it, and people have to work a certain number of hours to come across,” says Ahmed.

“British workers can choose to work the number of hours they want to work. You’ve got British recruits who only want to work 20 hours and so on. If you’ve got five international recruits, you might need seven Brits to replace them.”

For British workers, there is often a feeling that a job in care “doesn’t pay them enough”.

“They get more money from being on the benefit system,” Ahmed adds.

Without access to overseas workers, several providers have already had to shut down.

On a separate note, much of the outrage around the broken asylum system has focused on illegal migrants doing food deliveries and any gig economy work they can get their hands on.

Whatever your feelings on the issue, one cannot help but wonder how many unemployed Brits would risk their lives in the Channel to deliver takeaways in a foreign country.

The future that Sir Jim desires may be nearer than he realises, however. The net number of migrants coming to the UK will probably fall below 100,000 this year, according to Oxford Economics, the lowest number in nearly 30 years.

This figure could plausibly go into negative territory within the next few years, some experts believe.

But once the immigrants are gone, who will do the hard work that Britons don’t want to do?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/02/18/ratcliffe-wrong-idle-britons-are-the-problem-not-immigrants/