Why does a billionaire living in Monaco think the UK has been ‘colonised’ by migrants?

Read time: 4 mins

In brief…

• Nigel Farage has said Manchester United shareholder Jim Ratcliffe is “right” when he says the UK has been colonised, but The News Agents says the billionaire – who lives in Monaco – is “out of his depth” speaking on the subject.
• They say the language has been “normalised” in the UK by far-right politicians, and comments like this, which may once have been shocking, no longer are. .
• Lewis Goodall says the centre and left of the UK’s political system should take the conversation from the hands of the far-right and have a more honest conversation, to prevent “dark” theories becoming even more widespread.

What’s the story?

British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who lives in Monaco and pays no tax in the UK, has said Britain has been “colonised” by migrants.

Nigel Farage has said it was a “controversial word” but shared a video supporting his views, claiming migrants are “making us poorer”.

“I believe, firmly, that Jim Ratcliffe is right,” the Reform UK leader said, in a video where he suggested one of the biggest problems facing people in Britain is multi-lingual transport signs.

Ratcliffe’s words have been condemned by Keir Starmer and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burham, who has said his comments "go against everything for which Manchester has traditionally stood."

Ratcliffe has since said he is sorry his language "offended some people" and for his “choice of language”.

“Ratcliffe is out of his depth on this,” says Emily Maitlis.

“It's almost as if he has heard words like 'colonisation' and just assumed that that is now normal.

“I have a hunch that more British people would say: ‘I prefer people in this country – be they immigrants or not – pay their taxes, rather than billionaires who bugger off to Monaco and don’t’.”

It’s estimated that by moving to the tax haven, the chemical CEO and part-owner of Manchester United football club avoids paying £4 billion a year in UK taxes.

Do Ratcliffe’s comments come as a surprise?

Claiming the UK has been “colonised’, Emily says, is concerning as a shareholder in Manchester United – a football club at the heart of the UK’s Kick It Out movement, which aims to tackle racism in the sport.

“He is spending his millions on an English football team, and importing racism right to the heart of it again,” she adds.

“I was trying to work out whether I was shocked by this or not.

“Part of me thinks, actually, I wasn't shocked, because this has become normalised language for Reform-leaning billionaires who are looking to Farage and Reform to reshape the country.”

Has this sort of language been normalised in the UK?

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this sort of rhetoric from leading figures in the UK.

Lewis Goodall says Ratcliffe’s comments follow those made by the likes of Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick in recent years, who have referred to migrants as an “invasion” and given speeches lamenting the lack of “white faces” during a visit to Birmingham.

“This idea from the far-right, that what is going on is either an invasion or a colonisation suggests that immigration is something being done unto us, rather than something that we elected to do,” he says.

“It suggests that a foreign power is taking control and settling in Britain and dominating, displacing or exploiting the indigenous population and imposing their culture and language on us.”

This type of language, Lewis adds, harks back to Enoch Powell’s 1968 speech addressing “rivers of blood”, which led to him being expelled from the Conservative Party at the time.

“Those ideas, I would argue, are now pretty central to a core part of our politics – certainly on the right – and as we see from Jim Ratcliffe, this is becoming normalised within certainly elite parts of British society and elsewhere as well.”

In recent years, some parts of the UK’s far-right have rallied against the idea that British colonisation was a negative in the era of the Empire, yet now use the term to describe migrants entering the UK.

“It's fine. It's terrible – just, just make your mind up,” Emily says.

“We had the biggest empire in the world, so actually, to then turn around and say, ‘what are you all doing here?’ It’s crazy.”

Do the centre and the left need to take control of the conversation of migrants in the UK?

The UK’s mainstream parties – notably Labour and the Conservatives – have made attempts to discuss concerns around migrants and asylum seekers in the UK in recent years, but have often been hit with criticism that they are simply echoing the words of Reform in an attempt to appeal to their supporters.

Lewis says people on the left, and centre, of UK politics need to discuss the problems that do exist with more honesty and transparency.

“It's perfectly legitimate to have a conversation about integration and about whether some cultures or some people from certain countries are much worse at integrating than others,” he says.

“I don't think liberals or progressives should be afraid of that conversation, because if you don't have it, you leave it to the right and the far right.”

That, he adds, can be seen at the very top of global politics right now – most notably in Donald Trump’s America and the MAGA movement.

“The reason I think all mainstream politicians, including on the centre-right, should fight it, is because it plays into some very dark impulses that immigrants aren't coming to join us, they're coming to replace us.

“It suggests they're not coming to add to our society or even change our society slightly. They are coming to erase our society.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.