Comments on the ‘colonisation of the UK’ by the co-owner of Manchester United were erroneous, crass and a gift to divisive forces in British society
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n 2020, the year Sir Jim Ratcliffe moved his huge fortune to Monaco, migrants in the United Kingdom made tax contributions estimated to be worth around £20bn. Sir Jim, by jetting off to a tax haven on the French Riviera, saved himself an estimated £4bn. It took some brass neck for the expat owner of Ineos and co-owner of Manchester United football club to lecture the country, using inflammatory and offensive language, on the perils of immigration.
Where to begin? The statistics used by Sir Jim to back his claim that Britain was being “colonised” by migrants, in an interview with Sky News, were flatly wrong. They were also astonishingly crass, coming from a man who presides over a sporting institution famous for and proud of its global fanbase and international connections.
Current Manchester United stars such as Cameroon’s Bryan Mbeumo and Côte d’Ivoire’s Amad Diallo will doubtless have their views on Sir Jim’s intervention. So will its French former icon, Eric Cantona – another coloniser whose genius generated a memorable outpouring of francophilia on the red side of Manchester. Representatives of the club’s many Muslim followers have already given theirs, questioning whether they should feel welcome in United’s Old Trafford stadium.
