Jim Ratcliffe, the billionaire co-owner of Manchester United Plc (NYSE:MANU), has publicly backed Labour ahead of July’s general election, citing dissatisfaction with current Conservative policies and leadership.
Ratcliffe, who holds a minority stake in the football team through the chemicals giant Ineos, said he “had enough” of Sunak’s policies and the string of failed prime ministers.
"Conservatives now have had a fairly long stint and they’ve put forward a whole series of prime ministers that haven’t been terribly successful,” Ratcliffe said in an interview with Bloomberg.
“Everybody in the UK now, you can see that the mood in the UK is ready for a change, they’ve had enough.”
Despite his previous criticism of Labour, Ratcliffe spoke positively about the Labour leader.
"I’ve met Keir Starmer a couple of times, I like Keir. I think he’ll do a very sensible job," he added.
Ratcliffe also criticised current Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s proposal to abolish non-dom status for foreign nationals working in the UK, a policy change he deemed unwise.
"You’ve got 60,000 very wealthy people in London, why would you want to encourage them to leave? It doesn’t make any sense to me really because they all bring enormous value," he said.
Last month, Ratcliffe met with Starmer at a Man Utd game after recently becoming acquaintances.
Britain's second richest man is believed to have urged Starmer to support the development of a nationwide hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to help drive demand for the zero-emission vehicle