LONDON (AP) — Manchester United co-owner Jim Ratcliffe said Thursday that he’s sorry if some have been offended by anti-immigrant comments.

The billionaire co-owner of Manchester United faced criticism by both political leaders and fans after he said the U.K. had been “colonized’’ by immigrants.

Ratcliffe, the founder and chairman of chemicals maker Ineos, is one of Britain’s richest people and an influential voice on politics and the economy.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday that the comments by Jim Ratcliffe were “offensive and wrong.”

Ratcliffe issued a statement on Thursday, saying that he was “sorry that my choice of language has offended some people in the U.K. and Europe.”

Ratcliffe, who lives in the tax haven of Monaco, made the comments in a wide-ranging interview with Sky News in which he touched on the challenges facing the European chemicals industry, politics and the weakness of the U.K. economy.

“You can’t have an economy with 9 million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in,” Ratcliffe said. “I mean, the U.K.’s been colonized.”