Ratcliffe owes migrants more than a half-hearted apology but so does Starmer – his policies created this environment

It’s a staggering phrase that deliberately misrepresents both the facts of immigration and the history of colonisation. Ratcliffe, who has chosen to live in Monaco to avoid £4billion in tax, is himself an economic migrant. As one of Britain’s richest men - a billionaire industrialist and tax exile, and the co-owner of a football club whose history and global success are inseparable from migration - the hypocrisy is staggering.

Ratcliffe was a leading proponent for Brexit - a political project that crashed the UK economy. Blaming migrants for today’s economic problems is a convenient way to dodge responsibility for that failure. His half-hearted apology only underlines the point: powerful men are quick to inflame division, but slow to accept accountability for the consequences.

On top of this, he now chooses to use the vocabulary of fear and violence - language long championed by the far-right. The idea that migrant communities are replacing the British public is an extremist conspiracy theory that should have no place in political discourse.

The Prime Minister was right to say that Ratcliffe should apologise. But he owes an apology too.

Over the past year, we have watched increasingly inflammatory language about migration seep into mainstream politics. Parties like Reform UK have openly called for the deportation of thousands of people and the abolition of settlement right, known as Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), altogether. While the Government stops short of this, its rhetoric increasingly mirrors far-right framing: we are an “island of strangers”, there is “no golden ticket” to settlement; people must “earn” the right to stay; immigration must be “controlled” and “ordered.”

This language matters. It legitimises the idea that migrants are an economic burden, inherently suspect and that they have no place in the UK. This is a global trend that is playing out horrifically in places like the USA.

At Praxis, the frontline migrants’ rights charity I lead, we see the real-world consequences of that drift every day. We are extremely concerned about what the future holds for migrant communities, people of colour and their families.

We support people who have lived in this country for years - sometimes decades - who work, pay taxes and raise children here. Many are key workers: carers, cleaners, delivery drivers, and NHS staff. They already navigate one of the most complex and expensive immigration systems in the world. When public figures describe immigration as “colonisation”, it filters into the streets, the school gate and the workplace, reinforcing the divides that we have seen so dangerously erupt on our streets.

Policy choices reinforce this message. Making settlement harder, raising income thresholds beyond ordinary workers’ reach, and changing rules retrospectively all send the same signal: you don’t belong. Your place is conditional. Your contribution secondary to a political narrative about numbers.

History shows that when mainstream parties adopt these frames they do not neutralise the far-right. They strengthen it. By validating the premise that migration is a threat to our economy and society, governments create fertile ground for ever more extreme demands.

There is a profound irony here. Britain is not being “colonised” by migrants. They are sustaining it. Our health and care systems would collapse without international staff. Our universities, construction sites, tech firms and hospitality sector depend on global talent. Migration is not an aberration in our history – like colonialism was; it is a constant thread woven through it.

The public is rightly outraged by Ratcliffe’s comments. At least they can see it’s not our neighbours who are poisoning our communities, but powerful billionaires who stoke division from the top and expect everyone else to live with the consequences.

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Minnie Rahman is the CEO of Praxis, an award-winning migrants' rights charity based in London.

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