Ratcliffe backlash: outrage over Manchester United co-owner’s comments – The Latest

0:00This is The Guardian.

0:14Immigrants shouldn't have to keep justifying themselves. I mean, the UK's being colonised. It's being colonised. It'll look cold. The UK's being colonised by immigrants, really, isn't it? These comments feel particularly poisonous. In an industry that, frankly, would collapse overnight if it weren't for immigrant labour. It's the billionaire class. It's the tax exiles living in Monaco. These are the colonisers. They are the ones who are colonising our society. A claim that the UK is being colonised by immigrants from the billionaire co-owner of Manchester United has been met with outcry. From The Guardian's Today in Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hove.

0:50Joining me is Jonathan Liu, a sports writer and columnist for The Guardian. And Jonathan, you were incidentally travelling to Manchester today to cover the Gorton and Denton by-election, right? but you find yourself at the centre of the news storm. Hi, thanks for having me. I know I'm here to do a piece on the by-election, but, you know, they say, good journalist, the news follows them. So here we are. Lucky you. So, Johnny, before we proceed, I just want to talk a bit about who Sir Jim Ratcliffe is. He is, I think it's safe to say, the unloved co-owner of Manchester United. He's a billionaire, a chemical engineer.

1:21He lives in Monaco, where he enjoys his tax benefits, right? Yeah, Britain's Richards, I thought, or maybe one of Britain's richest men. You think he bought... Seventh richest man. Oh, well, that's Manchester United for you. So he's given an interview to Ed Conway of Sky News, a wide-ranging interview, shall we say, that covered his business affairs, it covered politics. But critically, it covered these very controversial remarks he made on immigration. You can't have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK is being colonised. It's costing too much money.

2:00It will cause... It's being colonised. It'll cause... Well, yeah. The UK is being colonised by immigrants, really, isn't it? So, I mean, Johnny, these remarks clearly play into a debate, a toxic debate that we're having about immigration at the moment. But they matter particularly from someone who is a powerful figure in business and in football in particular. Yeah, very much so. I mean, I noticed that he's also apologised. a kind of non-apology, what I call one of those dog whistle apologies that doesn't, you know, is meant to assuage the other side, but also reassure the people that agree with him.

2:37Basically saying, I'm sorry if some people were offended by these remarks. Basically, yeah, I'm sorry you're all woke cucks. So that was what he said today. His comments are, I think, particularly pointed because he's not a politician. he's the businessman and and the co-owner of a football club yeah uh a part owner of a football club with a huge link to it to its community to the city of manchester itself a city built on immigrants a city proud of its tolerance and diversity and in an industry that frankly would collapse overnight if it weren't for immigrant labor if you go through that that manchester united squad and you know not that you should need to because you know that's a whole other debate but But this is a club where the best players, a lot of the best staff are from overseas and have come here and have come to Manchester to try and do their best work and make Manchester United a winning football club again.

3:36So that's why I think these comments feel particularly poisonous, because football, for better or worse, has always seen itself as one of those places where immigration is genuinely seen as a net benefit. It's almost not an issue. The best talent goes to where the market takes it. You are essentially open. You have open arms and open minds when it comes to importing talent. And so what has been the reaction so far from within football? I mean, the Football Association, the FA, has said it's going to start an investigation or it's going to look into whether these comments from Ratcliffe bring the game into disrepute.

4:16He has, it seems, kind of under duress, apologised. but as you say, a kind of half apology. Are we likely to see a strong reaction? I mean, clearly there will be calls for fans, players, those involved in Manchester United and in football more broadly to respond to these and really call this out. Yeah, a lot of Manchester United fan groups have already condemned these remarks. These are fan groups that long predate the arrival of Ratcliffe, that have a really important connection, that form a part of the club's culture, far more than its ownership. ever has done. And so, yeah, there will be pretty strong condemnation.

4:54I don't think we'll see a huge amount. I don't think we'll hear a huge amount from Michael Carrick, the interim coach, or any of the players on the basis that it's basically not, there's not a culture of speaking out on this stuff and certainly not about the guy who is who is putatively employing you. But I mean, the onus now seems to be falling on not just Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise, but also looking to the players to make public statements, which is a really difficult position for them to have been put in the first place. I think one of the most poisonous aspects of this is that it forces people in favour of immigration, immigrants themselves, advocates for immigration, to almost have to defend immigrants on entirely false premises, essentially.

5:42you know well-meaning people will say well you know look at Kobi Mainu or look at look at Bruna Fernandez look you know who are either immigrants or the children of immigrants look at what immigrants contribute to the UK economy and you're almost sort of rebutting this entirely bad faith accusation as if it as if it were based on anything rational and the fact is that immigrants shouldn't have to keep justifying themselves. It forces immigrants to carry on justifying their very existence in a country. Oh, they contribute to the economy. Oh, they provide footballers. They can be good. Frankly, it takes morality out of the debate entirely.

6:23It forces you to debate with people who have absolutely no interest in a rational basis to the argument at all, because this is ultimately founded on the basest fears of all. It's founded on an innate, And I would say a racist hostility to immigrants and what they bring to the country that I think is being exploited by a lot of bad actors in politics and in wider culture. And Johnny, I mean, the thing in that, obviously, is this use of the word colonised. That is really inflammatory language to be using, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, as well as being inflammatory, it's frankly, historically illiterate.

7:02It has absolutely no understanding of the way our society is built or has been built over years. And it's entirely intentional, this language of colonization, which the reason that Britain is such a diverse country is because of its own colonial exploits in the 18th and 19th century. and the fact that Radcliffe is using that language when in fact it is his class, it's the billionaire class, it's the tax exiles living in Monaco who are draining public resources, buying up property and accumulating assets. These are the colonizers. They are the ones who are colonizing our society. So that is why I think his comments are so noxious.

7:47He's essentially deflecting the blame for something that his own people and his own kind have caused. You wrote a really brilliant opinion piece last September about what is the end game of this very toxic debate about immigration in this country. And it's almost become a cliche to talk about the shifting Overton window on the normalisation of language such as this. This is a very stark example of that happening, isn't it? These comments from Sir Jim Ratcliffe. They have been roundly condemned by the Labour government. Keir Starmer fairly instantaneously tweeted on X, this is offensive. But there's been a very muted response from the Tories and what appears to be almost condoning from Nigel Farage, who had a meeting with Sir Jim Ratcliffe, we understand, quite recently.

8:35Yeah. And, you know, depressingly, this is where the window is now. I mean, I've watched it over the last decade, shift from immigration is a is a bad thing to to you know immigrants are criminals and immigrants are degenerates they are sexually depraved they are violating our women uh immigrants are taking our jobs and our houses and you know the the logical end game of this debate is we must remove uh immigrants whether they whether they were born here or not you know whether they came here on a boat or a plane uh whether you know that their parents were born here uh we must remove them forcibly by any means possible.

9:12That is ultimately where we are. It's where a lot of people already were. But frankly, the terms of the debate have shifted to an extent where it's becoming increasingly acceptable, or I would say consequence-free, to voice these thoughts out loud. I don't doubt that Radcliffe has held these views for a long time. Yeah. But there was a deliberate nature in the way that he gave these comments, isn't it? He knows how inflammatory they're going to be. This is quite intentional and by design that he knows people will be very offended and there will be outcry within his own industry and beyond. Right.

9:47And as a business leader, he obviously has to work with whatever the next UK government is going to be. And it is looking increasingly likely that the next UK government is going to be a reformed government led by Nigel Farage. In that sense, it's a commercial decision. But also, So it's, I think, I think it's telling that he's found it expedient to voice these thoughts right now. And I think that is the more worrying part that, you know, obviously there are people who hold these views. But the fact that he feels emboldened to say it now and to say it so publicly and to say it so brazenly, almost kind of off the cuff, is I think a real, you know, it's a real indictment of where our public discourse is at.

10:30It sure is. Johnny, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for having me. That's it for today. My huge thanks again to Jonathan Yu, Guardian sports writer and columnist. For more of his writing, head over to theguardian.com. And for more on this story and all your other football news, do listen to today's episode of our Football Weekly podcast. Today in Focus will be back with you tomorrow morning and we'll be back tomorrow night. This episode was presented by me, Lucy Hoff. It was produced by Bryony Moore, Paul Owen and Kate Abbott. The senior producer was Ryan Ramgoban and the lead producer was Zoe Hedge.

11:03This is The Guardian.