Minister escalates row with ‘hypocritical’ Ratcliffe over claim UK colonised by immigrants – politics live

<p>Justice minister says ‘man who moved to Monaco to save tax is now lecturing us about immigration’</p><p>Good morning. As <strong>Joe Coughlan </strong>and <strong>Rob Davies</strong> report, last night Downing Street said that said the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/manchester-united">Manchester United</a> co-owner Jim Ratcliffe should apologise for his comments that the UK is being “colonised” by immigrants.</p><p>Although Ratcliffe’s claim that the UK population had increased by 12m over the past five years was shockingly and absurdly inaccurate, it was still moderately surprising that Downing Street criticised Ratcliffe so quickly and so explicitly. In the past, when public figures have made anti-immigration comments, the default government response has often been to say that they have a point and that these concerns are understandable. It is to soon to know whether the Ratcliffe rebuttal is evidence of a new approach, but Morgan McSweeney, who was the PM’s chief of staff until Sunday, was one of the figures in Downing Street most nervous about being seen as pro-immigration, and there is speculation that with him out of the building, Starmer might be bolder about articulating his progressive instincts.</p><p>[Ratcliffe} he certainly doesn’t have to apologise for having an opinion. But personally, and I think, the prime minister thinks, that that language is offensive to so many people.</p><p>It is completely absurd to think that our country is being ‘colonised’, which implies some kind of invasion or taken over. That’s not right at all.</p><p>Let’s just be very clear that Jim Ratcliffe’s comments yesterday both were offensive in terms of the language used, he got his facts wrong, and there’s also something that I find quite offensive, that this man who moved to Monaco to save £4bn in tax is now lecturing us about immigration. There’s something that I find slightly hypocritical about that.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/feb/12/uk-politics-latest-news-updates-labour-jim-ratcliffe-keir-starmer">Continue reading...</a>

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