The Manchester United co-owner, one of Britain's richest men but a resident of tax-free Monaco, told Sky News that Britain had been "colonised" by immigrants who are draining resources from the state.

"You can't have an economy with nine million people on benefits and huge levels of immigrants coming in," he said.

"I mean, the UK has been colonised. It's costing too much money.

"The UK has been colonised by immigrants, really, hasn't it?"

In a post on X responding to the interview, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Offensive and wrong. Britain is a proud, tolerant and diverse country. Jim Ratcliffe should apologise."

Sir Jim, the founder of the INEOS chemicals group, also claimed to Sky's economics and data editor Ed Conway immigration had pushed the country's population from 58 million in 2020 to 70 million in 2026.

The Office for National Statistics estimates the population of the UK was 67 million in mid-2020 and 70 million in mid-2024. It was estimated at 58.9 million in 2000.

Sir Jim said the government needed a leader "prepared to be unpopular for a period" to address Britain's issues, suggesting Sir Keir, while "a nice man", might not be the right man for the top job.

He said he had met recently with Nigel Farage, describing him as "intelligent" with "good intentions".

The Reform UK leader later backed his remarks about immigration, telling Sky News: "The country has undergone unprecedented mass immigration that has changed the character of many areas in the country.

"Labour may try and ignore that but Reform won't."

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Speaking before Sir Keir's intervention, Sports Secretary Lisa Nandy told Matt Barbet on Sky's Politics Hub that immigration had been too high, especially under Boris Johnson's government.

But she said the government was investing in more opportunities for British youngsters, and declared: "My dad comes from an immigrant background. I want your viewers to know that I am really proud that Britain is a diverse and tolerant country that is strengthened by waves of immigration."

'Disgraceful and divisive'

The prime minister's criticism has been widely echoed by football and anti-racism groups.

The Manchester United Muslim Supporters' Club accused Sir Jim of risking "legitimising prejudice and deepening division", saying it was "deeply concerned" by his rhetoric.

"The term 'colonised' is not neutral. It echoes language frequently used in far-right narratives that frame migrants as invaders and demographic threats," said a statement.

"Such rhetoric has real-world consequences," it added, and pointed out United has "players, staff and supporters from every background, faith, and ethnicity".

Football's anti-discrimination body Kick It Out labelled Sir Jim's comments "disgraceful and deeply divisive at a time when football does so much to bring communities together".

Its damning statement added: "This type of language and leadership has no place in English football, and we believe most fans will feel the same."

Charity Show Racism the Red Card also said it was "deeply concerned" by the remarks, and said public figures should use their platform to "challenge racism, not inadvertently amplify narratives that undermine community harmony".

It comes hours after he oversaw a 0-0 draw with bottom side Wolves. He leaves the club sitting 17th in the table, just three points above the relegation zone with 12 games remaining.

"Nottingham Forest Football Club can confirm that Sean Dyche has been relieved of his duties as head coach," a statement said.

"We would like to thank Sean and his staff for their efforts during their time at the club and we wish them the best of luck for the future. We will be making no further comment at this time."

A spate of sackings - and history to be made

It's the third time Forest have sacked their manager this season, following Nuno Espirito Santo and Ange Postecoglou - the latter lasting just 39 days.

It's also the second Premier League managerial sacking of the week, after Spurs dismissed Thomas Frank, and the eighth managerial departure in the English top-flight so far this season.

Dyche's dismissal means Forest look set to become the first Premier League club to have four permanent managers in a single campaign.

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The 54-year-old took charge in October with Forest third from bottom in the table after a run of one win in eight games during a difficult opening to the season.

Following a promising start to his tenure at the City Ground, the former Burnley and Everton boss found victories hard to come by in recent weeks, with Forest winning just two of their last 10 league fixtures.

In that time, the club also exited the FA Cup at the hands of Championship side Wrexham.

Dyche, who as a player was part of Forest's youth set-up, was in charge for 114 days, during which time he guided the team to the Europa League play-offs, where they will face Turkish side Fenerbahce in the first of a two-legged tie next week.

Professor John Donoghue, who developed BrainGate - the first "brain chip" - at Brown University in Rhode Island, has just shared in the Queen Elizabeth Prize, the world's preeminent engineering award, in recognition of his work to "unlock" the minds of people with paralysis.

"If you want to control a computer, or you want to be able to restore speech, I think there's no reason why we can't see those as fast as somebody can produce a device that's approved," said the neuroscientist.

Getting devices "approved" is now what it's all about. That means satisfying medical regulators that the benefits of surgically implanting a chip in the brain outweigh the risks.

And why the first human trials are focusing on those in the greatest medical need, like people paralysed from the neck down.

Elon Musk's Neuralink is one of about a dozen companies now working to commercialise BCIs (brain computer interface), or brain chips.

Its technology is based on Prof Donoghue's early work - an array of electrodes connected to a computer chip that can detect nerve signals in an area of brain tissue, then decode the signals to restore function that has been lost.

Prof Donoghue and his team were the first to show a BCI could be used to restore deliberate movement - "control" they call it - to a paralysed individual.

More than two decades ago, when he embarked on BCI research, some neuroscientists weren't even sure the brain regions in people with severe paralysis still worked.

Some suspected they might wither through lack of use in the same way the patient's limbs are prone to do once nerve signals from the brain are lost.

He proved them wrong.

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"I remember this vividly as we turned it on the very first time," said Prof Donoghue.

"Is there going to be anything there or are all the neurons just going to be silent? And when we turned it on, it was just busy with activity… at that point, I knew it was going to work."

Work it did. In a series of experiments, Prof Donoghue's team showed their BrainGate chip and associated software to decode signals from the motor cortex of a volunteer's brain could allow them to move a cursor on a screen, turn words into speech and control a robotic arm.

So why, more than a decade since some of those demonstrations, are devices only now going into the first clinical trials?

"You can put an electrode in the brain, first in animals and then people, and it can work, but you need to have a technology that can be safe in the brain and implanted there forever," explained Prof Donoghue.

Making computer chips and electrodes that minimise the risk of infection, can be implanted in the relevant part of brain tissue without damaging it, and don't need to be repaired, are major engineering challenges.

And issues that wouldn't worry an electronics engineer too much are a major problem for biologists.

"If you have a device that's got a processor of electronics on it, it gets hot, just like your phone gets really hot," said Prof Donoghue.

"You can't have that. The brain tolerates just a degree or two."

But with three companies with BCI devices of different designs in human trials for the first time, Prof Donoghue believes the field is finally taking off.

"The prize is such an important recognition that things are changing all of a sudden," he said.

Is mind reading in our future?

Well-funded companies like Neuralink are likely to succeed in getting approval for a device to help people with severe paralysis, the professor believes.

However, further inroads into restoring speech, or vision in those who have lost it, and ensuring that the devices remain reliable for the lifetime of a person, are still huge engineering and neuroscience challenges.

Prof Donoghue believes brain chips aren't currently capable of gathering and processing enough information to be close to "reading" our minds.

But the possibility that an unintended thought, or word, could be picked up by a brain chip means we should be thinking seriously now about the ethical implications of the devices.

"It is a concern," he said.

"As we learn more and more, we can gain more about what you're thinking about. I think ethically, we need to think about how we protect the data from an individual."

The review followed the high-profile case of baby Victoria, who died at the hands of her aristocrat mother Constance Marten and her father Mark Gordon.

Marten, 38, and her convicted rapist partner Gordon, 51, went on the run with their daughter to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care.

Victoria's body was later found inside a shopping bag.

Marten and Gordon have been jailed for a total of 28 years after they were convicted of killing their baby.

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The review, published by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said the baby girl's birth "was the last within her family of a rapid series of pregnancies, births, and removals into care that by the time she was conceived had become a repeating pattern with devastating consequences".

It said that, given the family history, professionals around them "needed to contemplate the prospect of Victoria being conceived and born well in advance, to have a better chance of engaging more productively with her parents".

In 1989, British national Gordon was jailed in the US for raping a woman in Florida when he was 14.

The review said when he was deported back to the UK, he was not required to share details about new partners or pregnancy.

At least three of the pregnancies during his relationship with Marten were concealed or disclosed late, which the review said limited "safeguarding opportunities".

'I was given ultimatums'

Asked by the review how contact with child safeguarding agencies made her feel, Marten said: "I was given ultimatums, rather than true assistance.

"It felt like they were using the powers of the state coercively rather than constructively.

"It felt, in a way, that there was a flow chart which would ultimately result in the removal of my children, step by step.

"My mistrust of social services is not an innate feature of my personality, it developed due to my dealings with them."

'Hard to hear'

The report called for better support for parents of children who are taken into care to prevent harm to any babies they might have in the future.

Panel chairman Sir David Holmes said while it might be "hard to hear and harder still to action", a lesson from the case is that a focus must be kept on support for parents in cases of child removal "however hard to understand they may be".

The review noted the couple's "persistent reluctance to engage" with authorities, having moved five times during their five pregnancies between 2017 and 2023, "with each move coinciding with escalating safeguarding concerns".

The 82-year-old former magistrate had just been diagnosed with an aggressive, inoperable brain tumour.

She wanted to add her voice to support for the assisted dying bill making its way through parliament, even though she knew it would come too late for her.

She feared the loss of dignity and identity as she deteriorated.

"I feel that it should be me who says, 'Well, I think I'll get off this bus now. I've reached where I want to go to, and I'm quite happy, I've had a good life'."

Forty-nine days after we spoke, Ed died.

Her son Stephen was with her in those final days. It was, he said, exactly the sort of harrowing and difficult death his mother dreaded.

"She wouldn't have chosen that end. She knew exactly what was going to happen to her," he told Sky News.

"Mum lived her life with dignity. She lived her life in a way that she very much wanted to control everything and the control was taken away from her, the dignity was removed.

"It actually took away her humanity. She didn't have any other choices open to her."

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Stephen spoke to Sky News as the fate of the assisted dying bill hangs in the balance.

Supporters say peers in the House of Lords are attempting to block its progress with a series of amendments. Those opponents say scrutiny is necessary to protect the vulnerable.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would permit a person who is terminally ill and with less than six months to live to legally end their life.

"Having to go through this experience with a loved one who's at the end of life, you want the best for them, the best outcome and the best ending, the most human ending for them. I think everybody would agree that that would be the case," Stephen said.

As a citizen of New Zealand, which has had an assisted dying law since 2021, Stephen has an elderly friend who chose to end their life, free on the country's health service, at the time of his mother's death.

His mum's own wish had been for her life to end in her favourite armchair, with a cup of tea by her side, and a view of her beloved North Yorkshire countryside.

'I don't think she had justice'

"I feel disappointed for her, that as a person who had fought for justice all her life, I felt the system let her down a little bit at the end," he said.

"I don't think she had the justice that she deserved."

"Mum was so frustrated with the system," her son added.

"I don't think mum was a person who was angry much. She would see things for how they were and try and change them. 'How can I make this better, if not for me, then for other people?'

"That's how mum lived her life."