LONDON: Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe apologized Thursday for his &quot;choice of language&quot; after saying the &quot;UK has been colonized by immigrants.&quot; The billionaire businessman, founder and chairman of the Ineos chemicals company, made the remarks in a television interview in which he suggested &quot;huge levels of immigration&quot; to the UK had harmed the economy. But following calls for Ratcliffe to apologize, including from Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the 73-year-old said, &quot;I am sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the UK and Europe and caused concern, but it is important to raise the issue of controlled and well-managed immigration that supports economic growth. &quot;My comments were made while answering questions about UK policy at the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, where I was discussing the importance of economic growth, jobs, skills, and manufacturing in the UK.&quot; He added, &quot;My intention was to stress that governments must manage migration alongside investment in skills, industry, and jobs so that long-term prosperity is shared by everyone. &quot;It is critical that we maintain an open debate on the challenges facing the UK.&quot; Inflammatory and divisive&nbsp;A spokesman for Starmer reacted by saying, &quot;The Prime Minister asked for an apology, and one&#39;s been issued, and it&#39;s absolutely right that Jim Ratcliffe has apologized for that language.&quot; Pressed on whether Ratcliffe&#39;s apology went far enough, the spokesman said, &quot;It&#39;s for Mr Ratcliffe to speak to his apology ... It&#39;s not for me.&quot; He added, &quot;We are, of course, of the view that there should be a serious debate about immigration, but the Prime Minister believes in a Britain built for all, and that those comments were inflammatory and divisive.&quot; Ratcliffe told Sky News on Wednesday, &quot;You can&#39;t have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK is being colonized. It&#39;s costing too much money. The UK has been colonized by immigrants.&quot; Ratcliffe&#39;s comments could lead to a possible disciplinary charge of &quot;bringing the game into disrepute&quot; by England&#39;s governing Football Association. During his Sky interview, Ratcliffe, who said his &quot;unpopular&quot; decisions at Old Trafford were now bearing fruit, cited erroneous statistics, claiming the UK population was 58 million in 2020 and &quot;now it&#39;s 70 million.&quot; Population estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the country&#39;s population was 67 million in mid-2020 and just under 70 million in mid-2024. Hours later, Starmer urged Ratcliffe to apologize for the &quot;offensive and wrong&quot; comments, with Kick It Out, a UK-based body seeking to counter racism in football, reacting strongly to the &quot;disgraceful and deeply divisive&quot; remarks on Thursday. &quot;In addition to the inaccurate figures mentioned, it&#39;s worth reminding him that Manchester United has a diverse fan base and plays in a city whose cultural history has been enriched by immigrants,&quot; Kick It Out said in a statement. &quot;This type of language and leadership has no place in English football, and we believe most fans will feel the same.&quot; Several United supporters&#39; groups did indeed criticize the comments, while the mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said that while calling for immigration curbs was &quot;one thing,&quot; portraying those who arrived in Britain &quot;as a hostile invading force is quite another.&quot;

British INEOS Group chairman Jim Ratcliffe poses upon his arrival for the 73rd edition of the Red Cross Gala at the Casino in Monte Carlo on July 18, 2022. Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe apologised on February 12, 2026 for his "choice of languag

Europe

The condemnation comes hours after Ratcliffe made the remarks in a television interview in which he suggested 'huge levels of immigration' to the UK had harmed the economy.

Man Utd's Ratcliffe apologizes for 'language' on immigration

LONDON: An under-fire UK police chief on Wednesday blamed the use of AI for erroneous evidence given to MPs over the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv football fans from a match against Aston Villa.&nbsp;The police classified the match in Birmingham in November as &quot;high risk&quot;, citing previous Maccabi games including a Europa League encounter in Amsterdam which sparked clashes between locals and Israeli fans.&nbsp;The decision to ban Maccabi fans from the Villa Park UEFA Europa League game was slammed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, with the government ordering an independent report which is due to be published later on Wednesday.&nbsp;Scrutiny has increased on West Midlands police after multiple pieces of evidence used to justify the decision proved flawed, with the force rejecting allegations that the move was motivated by politics rather than fan safety.&nbsp;In an intelligence report for the game, police cited a match between West Ham and Maccabi Tel Aviv which never took place.&nbsp;When questioned about this by lawmakers earlier this month, chief constable Craig Guildford insisted that the error was the result of a Google search, and that the force had not used artificial intelligence in its research.&nbsp;However, in a letter to MPs on Wednesday, Guildford admitted that the erroneous information was due to the use of Microsoft Co Pilot, an AI chatbot.&nbsp;&quot;I would like to offer my profound apology to the committee for this error,&quot; Guildford said, adding that there was &quot;no intention to mislead the committee&quot;.&nbsp;That came after UK media reported in December that Dutch police also disputed evidence cited by the West Midlands force to justify the ban.&nbsp;UK police claimed they were told that Maccabi fans were behind several violent incidents during the 2024 Amsterdam clashes but that intelligence was partly contradicted by Dutch politicians and police.&nbsp;The decision to ban the fans was also sharply criticized by Israeli politicians, who claimed that it was antisemitic.&nbsp;British interior minister Shabana Mahmood will present the findings of the independent inquiry on Wednesday, which could heap further pressure on Guildford after opposition leader Kemi Badenoch called for his resignation over the debacle.&nbsp;The Guardian newspaper reported that the watchdog report is set to say that the police made a series of errors in how it gathered and handled intelligence while making the decision.&nbsp;The match went ahead amid heavy security, but without Maccabi fans after the Israeli team turned down their away ticket allocation.

Two Police officers walking outside New Scotland Yard in London.

Artificial Intelligence

UK police chief admitted AI-generated errors led to flawed evidence behind banning Maccabi Tel Aviv fans, apologizing to MPs as an inquiry finds intelligence failures, amid political backlash, antisemitism claims, and pressure for his resignation.

UK police blames AI for evidence error over Maccabi fan ban

MANCHESTER: An assailant drove a car into people outside a synagogue Thursday in northern England and then began stabbing them, killing two and seriously wounding three in a terrorist attack on the holiest day of the Jewish year, police said. Officers shot and killed the suspect, Greater Manchester Police said, though it took authorities some time to confirm he was dead because of concerns he had an explosive on him. The Metropolitan Police in London, who lead counter-terror policing operations, declared the assault a terrorist attack. Assistant Commissioner Laurence Taylor said two other suspects were arrested, though he provided no further information on the arrests. The attack took place as people gathered at an Orthodox synagogue in suburban neighborhood of Manchester on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement and the most solemn day in the Jewish calendar. Antisemitic incidents in the UK rose following Israel&rsquo;s military campaign in Gaza, according to Community Security Trust, an advocacy group for British Jews that works to eliminate antisemitism. More than 1,500 incidents were reported in the first half of the year, the second-highest reported since the record set a year earlier. &ldquo;This is every rabbi&rsquo;s or every Jewish person&rsquo;s worst nightmare,&rdquo; said Rabbi Jonathan Romain, of Maidenhead Synagogue and head of the Rabbinic Court of Great Britain. &ldquo;Not only is this a sacred day, the most sacred in the Jewish calendar, but it&rsquo;s also a time of mass gathering.&rdquo; Witnesses describe a car driving toward the synagogue and then a stabbing attack In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), Greater Manchester Police said they were called to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue shortly after 9:30 a.m. &mdash; shortly after services were set to begin. The caller said he saw a car being driven toward members of the public and that one man had been stabbed. Chava Lewin, who lives next to the synagogue, said she heard a bang and thought it might be a firework until her husband ran inside their house and said there had been a &ldquo;terrorist attack.&rdquo; A witness told her that she saw a car driving erratically crash into the gates of the house of worship. &ldquo;She thought maybe he had a heart attack,&rdquo; Lewin said. &ldquo;The second he got out of the car, he started stabbing anyone near him. He went for the security guard and tried to break into the synagogue.&rdquo; Minutes later, police fired shots, saying they believed they had hit the assailant. Video on social media showed police with guns pointed at a person lying on the ground beneath a blue Star of David on the brick wall of the synagogue. A bystander could be heard on the video saying the man had a bomb and was trying to detonate it. When the man tried to stand up, a gunshot rang out and he fell to the ground. Police later detonated an explosion to get into the suspect&#39;s car. Manchester was the site of Britain&rsquo;s deadliest attack in recent years, the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert that killed 22 people. Authorities declare an emergency Immediately after the attack, police declared &quot;Plato,&rdquo; the national code-word used by police and emergency services when responding to a &ldquo;marauding terror attack.&quot; Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was appalled by the attack and additional police officers would be deployed at synagogues across the UK. He flew home early from a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark, to chair a meeting of the government&rsquo;s emergency committee. &ldquo;The fact that this has taken place on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, makes it all the more horrific,&rdquo; Starmer said on the X platform. King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla were &ldquo;deeply shocked and saddened&Prime; to learn of the attack &ldquo;on such a significant day for the Jewish community.&Prime; &ldquo;Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by this appalling incident and we greatly appreciate the swift actions of the emergency services,&rsquo;&prime; he said on his social media feed.

A suspected terrorist attacked a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur, killing two and injuring three. Police shot the attacker and arrested two others, declaring a terror incident.

Articles tagged with "Prime Minister Keir Starmer"

Man Utd's Ratcliffe apologizes for 'language' on immigration

UK police blames AI for evidence error over Maccabi fan ban

British police say deadly rampage at UK synagogue was a terrorist attack