Multi-millionaire Jim Ratcliffe’s ramblings are risible and are being reinforced by Reform lapdogs content to divide our communities on fake news and grievance, says STUC and Herald columnist Roz Foyer.

"You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in. I mean, the UK has been colonised. It's costing too much money. The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it? I mean, the population of the UK was 58 million in 2020, now it's 70 million. That's 12 million people."

Ratcliffe subsequently said he was sorry if his choice of language “has offended some people in the UK and Europe” but went on to stress that it was important to raise the issue of well-managed immigration and maintain an open debate.

Due to the way our society functions under the guise of rampant capitalism, we’re conditioned to believe that cream rises to the top. That those who have wealth, power and influence do so because of advantages – economic, social, educational – over the majority of the population; that the ruling classes rule because they’ve gained the right to do so through their dazzling intellect and acumen when compared to the ordinary working woman or man.

Free tuition is a red line — why Scotland cannot surrender it

Stop the politics — the Epstein scandal is about survivors, not men

Storm clouds gather over offshore wind as developers warn of crisis

Why Trump’s America is not an ally of the UK

Jim Ratcliffe seems to offer us some hope that is indeed not the case.

Let’s break down his inaccuracies. 

Nine million people aren’t on benefits. Figures from the Department of Work and Pensions reveal 8.4 million people were in receipt of Universal Credit, 2.2 million of whom are in work. That’s 2,200,000 people on such low pay, suffering the indignity of stagnating wages that don’t cover the necessities, that they need support from the state. For information, Sir Jim is reported to be worth £17 billion and is a resident of Monaco, notably saving himself a reported £4 billion in taxes that could otherwise go towards our public services and state infrastructure.

Speaking of state infrastructure, Sir Jim is the chairman and chief executive of INEOS, the part owners of the Grangemouth refinery which closed last year. Despite clear plans put forward by Unite the Union to save jobs and allow Scotland to become a world-leader in biofuels, the billionaire football boss booted the prospectus out the park, highlighting the precarious nature of leaving our energy infrastructure in the hands of a wealthy few instead of the state.

That’s not to mention the direct loss of 400 jobs for workers, some of whom might now find themselves on Universal Credit – a problem Jim himself seems to lament but has directly contributed towards. 

Contrary to belief, no – we’re not being ‘colonised’ by immigrants. To use that word in of itself, dripped in militaristic, evocative and imperialist overtones, gives an inkling into the modus operandi of the user.

More to the point, he’s just laughably and dangerously wrong. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate the UK population at 66.7 million in mid-2020, forecast to have grown to 69.5 million by mid-2025.

It’s laughable because I’m working on the assumption billionaires can count. It’s also dangerous because his words were lapped up with glee by those on the far-right using his intervention as super-charged reinforcement for their continued attempts to divide our communities.

Looking further at the bare facts, net migration has dropped around 80% since it’s 2023 peak.

But this isn’t a reason to celebrate.

It’s often worth repeating: Scotland needs more migration, not less. We have record vacancies across our public services, including within health and social care.

We aren’t a nation, or at least we shouldn’t be, of insular arrogance that aims to abandon those in need.

We’re a nation built upon the principles of tolerance, respect and empathy. It’s profoundly regrettable, therefore, that the UK Government seeks to pull up the drawbridge and, through the actions of the Home Office, increase hostility towards migrants, despite the clear need for Scotland to expand our workforce throughout the public and private sector.

Indeed, we’ve seen an 81% drop in the number of health and social care visas issued to migrant workers since Labour took office in 2024.

Putting aside the moral arguments of humanising our migration process, increasing migration is just good economics – the same prism through which Mr Ratcliffe see’s the world.

Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) modelling suggests that the UK benefits significantly from migration, with an economic migrant contributing £500,000 more in taxes than they receive in welfare.

What is growing larger however and what working people are being increasingly subjected to over time is powerful, wealthy elites exerting their misinformed muscle into our political process.

Rich elites like Nigel Farage, for example, who said: “I don't really care if Number 10 is in uproar or if much of mainstream media find his comments too difficult - I believe, firmly, that Jim Ratcliffe is right."

Except, of course, he wasn’t.

It’s the same playbook we’ve seen, time after time; the rich elites will band together in their billionaire boys’ clubs to proselytize their virtues to the masses despite being factually wrong.

But it’s hardly surprising that wealth looks after wealth and privilege protects privilege. That’s who Reform are, after all: the party of the privileged.

That same privilege clearly doesn’t extend to ordinary workers.

The Employment Rights Act, the flagship, potentially generation defining upgrade to workers’ rights, will be scrapped under a Reform Government, according to Richard Tice.

That means improvements to sick pay, parental leave, guaranteed hours and contractual terms and conditions are fair game for the chop because, rather than be on the side of working people, Reform are in with the bricks with the bosses and the billionaires.

Time and time again those in Reform rosettes are revealing their true colours; they’re no friends to the working classes. But the antipathy towards our current political process and the politicians within it is that strong that there are those within our movement gravitating towards Reform’s false promises.

We must be unequivocal and steadfast in our response, especially to all those that are scunnered with their current lot; our enemy doesn’t arrive in small boat – they arrive by private jet and we need to see them for who they are.

Roz Foyer is general secretary of the STUC

© Herald Scotland