Forthright, bold and what hard-pressed voters really think

Ratcliffe raises the concerns that Starmer refuses to hear'

- Sam Lister

KEIR Starmer pitched himself as a working class warrior this week but a billionaire tax exile showed he is more in touch with ordinary voters. Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe caused uproar when he claimed the UK had been "colonised by immigrants" in a television interview.

He claimed, incorrectly, that the population had risen by 12 million to 70 million people in the past five years, when the increase is actually nearer three million. "You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in," he told Sky News. "I mean, the UK has been colonised. It's costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it?"

Ratcliffe got his figures wrong and used blunt language, which was a gift to his critics, of which Starmer, naturally, was one. It gave them an easy line of attack. Throw in the fact he is loaded and lives in Monaco and job done, he's a super villain.

But the row says more about the state of our country than any political argy-bargy in parliament. The PM posted that the comments were "offensive and wrong". "Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country," he added. "Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."

This is the same Keir Starmer who only a year ago warned Britain is in danger of becoming an "island of strangers".