Sir Jim Ratcliffe Says Sorry (To Some) For 'Colonised' Comments
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Billionaire and Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has apologised to those who were offended by his comment that “the UK has been colonised by immigrants”. He said this to a journalist at a business summit in Belgium earlier this week.
Sir Keir Starmer, who condemned Sir Jim’s comments has said that he was right to apologise for causing offence. While the businessman was also criticised by Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, and other opposition parties and footballing groups, Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, has defended him saying ‘Labour may try to ignore [immigration] but Reform won't.’
James and Alex are joined by chief football news reporter, reporter Simon Stone.
Plus the BBC’s climate editor, Justin Rowlatt, joins James and Alex to explain the data that says China’s CO2 emissions have been falling for the past year and what it tells us about the trends for global emissions.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | So the burning question, newscasters, is this. |
| 0:08.8 | Is today going to be the day that Aberdeen sees the sun again for the first time in more than three weeks? |
| 0:14.5 | I mean, that's extraordinary. |
| 0:16.1 | Oh, well, it's extraordinary and miserable if you're there, I think. |
| 0:19.3 | Oh, well, maybe some people like gloomy days. But meteorologists actually measure this. And since the 21st of January, |
| 0:25.5 | Aberdeen, we're told, has been experiencing the longest period of sunlessness, or gloom, if you |
| 0:30.5 | will, since records began in 1957. So if you're wondering why it's been so miserable, we're |
| 0:36.2 | going to be asking the BBC's climate editor to just enrol it later in the episode to get to the bottom of that. |
| 0:41.3 | And perhaps more significantly to the bottom of China's fossil fuel emissions and what they might be able to tell us about the direction of travel in terms of climate change. |
| 0:50.0 | And we are going to talk about the co-owner of Manchester United, who has apologised if he's offended some people. |
| 0:57.4 | That was after comments he made about immigration. |
| 1:00.3 | That's all coming up in this episode of Newscast. |
| 1:03.3 | Newscast from the BBC. |
| 1:05.6 | Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. |
| 1:08.5 | I was the tattle tail in the class. |
| 1:09.8 | Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody. Then daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no solulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey. Hello, it is Alex in Westminster. And it's James in the Newscast Studio. |
| 1:31.4 | So Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is the co-owner of Manchester United. |
| 1:35.5 | Now, he has apologised for the offence caused by his language. |
| 1:41.6 | This is after there was a really big backlash to comments that he made in an interview on Sky News about immigration. |
| 1:47.6 | He said the UK had been colonised by immigrants. We have got someone to help us understand this and talk it all through. It is Simon Stone, football reporter for BBC |
| 1:51.5 | Sport. Hi, Simon. Hi. Hope you're okay. We are. I'm guessing you're having a busy day. So thank you for |
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