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

Good morning. Like Joe Coughlan And Rob Davies Last night Downing Street said Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe should apologize for his comments that Britain was being “colonised” by immigrants.

Although Ratcliffe’s claim that the UK population has increased by 12 million in the last five years was shocking and absurdly inaccurate, it was still quite surprising how quickly and openly Downing Street criticized Ratcliffe. In the past, when public figures made anti-immigration comments, the government’s default response was often to say that they were right and that their concerns were understandable. Whether Ratcliffe’s rebuttal is evidence of a new approach will soon be known, but Morgan McSweeney, who was until Sunday the Prime Minister’s private secretary, was one of the figures most uneasy about being seen as pro-immigrant in Downing Street, and there is speculation that with her out of the building Starmer may be bolder in expressing his progressive instincts.

What Number 10 says is important because when the Prime Minister speaks, ministers make sure they have their backs. Jake RichardsThe Minister of Justice got the message. He’s making a broadcast this morning and has stepped up the attack on Ratcliffe. He told Times Radio:

[Ratcliffe}Hecertainlydoesn’tneedtoapologizeforhavinganopinionButpersonallyIthinkthatthePrimeMinisteralsothinksthatthislanguageisoffensivetoalotofpeople[Ratcliffe}BirfikriolduğuiçinkesinlikleözürdilemesinegerekyokAncakkişiselolarakkibenceBaşbakandabudilinpekçokinsaniçinrahatsızediciolduğunudüşünüyor[Ratcliffe}hecertainlydoesn’thavetoapologiseforhavinganopinionButpersonallyandIthinktheprimeministerthinksthatthatlanguageisoffensivetosomanypeople

It is complete nonsense to think that our country has been ‘colonized’, that is, some kind of occupation or takeover. This is not true at all.

Richards also suggested Ratcliffe was a hypocrite.

Let’s be clear that Jim Ratcliffe’s comments yesterday were both offensive in terms of the language used and a misunderstanding of the facts, and what I find quite offensive is that this man who moved to Monaco to save £4bn in tax is now lecturing us on immigration. There’s something about this that I find a bit hypocritical.

It is hard to imagine that Richards would have authorized such a robbery if McSweeney were still in office at Downing Street.

Here is the agenda of the day.

09.30am: NHS England publishes monthly performance figures.

Morning: Chancellor Rachel Reeves will visit an education center in the south of England and speak to the media.

Morning: Health minister Wes Streeting visits a hospital in Manchester.

11am: Former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner speaks at a night economics conference in Liverpool. Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, mayors of the Greater Manchester and Liverpool city regions respectively, also speak.

Morning: Deputy prime minister and justice minister David Lammy visits a youth offending service in south London.

11.30; A lobby briefing is being held in Downing Street.

1.30pm: Manchester Evening News hosts Gorton v Denton by-election debate.

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