Keir Starmer’s great triumph – perhaps his only success – lies in his smart diplomacy with President Donald Trump. As Trump has moved to obliterate the world order, Starmer has made use of his soft spot for the UK. Now the Prime Minister is being urged to take advantage of Trump’s blind spot.
In the week since a $100,000 fee was slapped on H-1B visas, the temporary route for firms to take on highly skilled foreign labour, some of the world’s biggest employers have scrambled to ease workers’ fears about their right to stay. JP Morgan, Google and Microsoft were among the companies who sent notices to staff to tell them to stay in the US or return there immediately. Start-ups are re-considering whether the US is a welcoming place for them to stay in the long term.
Across the pond, growth-excited Brits are eager for Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Shabana Mahmood and anyone or everyone charged with driving the government’s “number one mission” to seize the opportunity and change their tune on immigration – and more specifically, immigration of the UK’s future in tech, science and world dominance. Researchers at Labour-friendly think tanks call it a “race” and are urging the government not to rest on its laurels.
Over the last week, it has been suggested the government looks set to revise criteria for the Global Talent visa – one of several entry routes to a life in the UK. Current applicants can only apply as the winner of specific prizes or they can gain an endorsement from one of few government-approved organisations. They must also pay £766 for each application as well as a £1,035 health surcharge.
Not only could fees be scrapped but sweeping changes to the application process could also be introduced. Policy wonks are proposing a new invitation-based scheme that would be based on Australian models. In its National Innovation Visa, talented people in certain areas are invited after universities and other bodies nominate top-of–the-class foreign nationals.
Proposals are being looked at by the Global Talent Taskforce, a team of policy officials headed by Keir Starmer’s business adviser Varun Chandra. They could lead to fundamental changes to the role of endorsing bodies, which are contracted by the Home Office to conduct vetting work on entrepreneurs and top researchers. These private organisations specialising in helping global talent arrive in the UK could play a more active role in attracting global talent.
Changes advocated by centre-left think tanks Centre for British Progress and the New Britain Project would form a part of the UK’s drive to set the tone on tech and science. Government officials are also facing calls to expand its £54m fund for up to 80 researchers to work on projects attached to industrial strategy objectives. The plans would top a raft of investment pledges made by Nvidia, Google and Blackstone.
The other visas on offer
Type of visa CriteriaThe perksSkilled worker Home Office-approved UK employers pay foreign workers at least £41,700 for the visa to be issued.
An applicant’s job must also appear in a list of ‘eligible occupations’ provided by the Home Office.This visa lasts up to 5 years. Holders can
– Bring dependents to the UK
– Apply for ILR after 5 yearsInnovator founderMigrants can apply for this visa if they have a business idea that is new, innovative, viable, scalable, and approved by an endorsing body. This visa lasts for 3 years, and can be extended an unlimited number of times. Holders can:
– Set up one or several businesses
– Work for this business
– Work outside of this business
– Bring dependents to the UKTravel abroad
– Apply for ILR after 3 yearsScale up worker visa Migrants must have a confirmed job offer for a minimum 6-month contract, meet English language requirements, and provide a certificate of sponsorship. This job must appear on the list of eligible occupations, and be paid either £39,100 or the ‘going rate’.This visa lasts for 2 years, and can be extended by 3 years an unlimited number of times. Holders can:
– Work in the sponsored job for at least 6 months
– Leave this job after 6 months
– Study
– Bring dependents
– Take on additional work, including becoming self-employed
– Apply for ILR after 5 yearsExpansion worker (Global Mobility) This visa allows workers to set up a UK branch of an overseas business which does not already operate in the country. Applicants must present a certificate of sponsorship and be applying for an eligible job. Applicants must be paid either £52,000. This visa lasts either 12 months after the job’s start date or the time provided on the certificate of sponsorship plus 14 days – the shortest duration of the two applies. Holders can:
– Work in the job described in the sponsorship certificate
– StudyBring dependents
– Travel abroad
– Do voluntary work
In the lead-up to the Budget, nothing is more important for the UK’s public finances than policies which prove that Labour’s growth mission is on track. While some strategists outside of Labour believe that the immigration white paper will lead to lower receipts in the hundreds of millions of pounds due to more tighter controls on working in Britain, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has publicly urged the Office for Budget Responsibility to give some credence to the introduction of a youth mobility scheme – a clear sign that the Treasury are desperate for the fiscal watchdog to remain optimistic amid suggestions it will dramatically downgrade its productivity forecasts.
Officials will also be hoping that an expansion of a global talent visa will also be scored positively by the OBR. Kyle has talked up his dream of seeing the UK’s first trillion-pound company be created; it has been pointed out that some of the fastest growing companies such as Wise and Revolut have foreign-born founders.
Those officials will probably be let down by the fiscal watchdog’s unapologetically rigorous forecasts. As Sergi Pardos-Prado, who sits on the Migration Advisory Committee, has said, the lack of available modelling on the economic effects of global talent visas and the small numbers of people on the visa meant the OBR was primed to look past any reforms. Alan Manning, who used to lead the government advisory group, suggested there was no way of measuring how many young people would choose to live in the UK while academia – the area many foreign nationals would likely join onto – was not directly a net contributor to public finances.
Criticism of the OBR’s practices have gone mainstream. A number of Labour MPs, including the former transport secretary and now Labour Growth Group’s Chris Curtis, have taken aim at the official forecasters for what they perceive to be a short-sighted, over-scrupulous and somewhat haphazard approach to revisions on growth and spending. Its possible reluctance to consider some of Labour’s pro-growth policies could inflame tensions.
Disjointed government confounds global talent
It may well be better that the OBR does not get over-excited about a new scheme. Bureaucrats in Whitehall are blamed for making the process all the more tedious for applicants, with talented individuals’ applications being triple-checked by civil servants after paperwork has been properly laid out by endorsing bodies.
There is also the risk of business immigration policy being managed too poorly. The Department for Business and Trade, the Department of Education, the Treasury, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Home Office – the department which receives the most criticism from industry leaders for its “incompetent” handling of visas – all have a stake in planning and implementation. Meanwhile, Number 10 lurks by and intervenes when it is politically appropriate to.
The main criticism around the Global Talent visa is that it is virtually unknown among university high-achievers. A government report in early 2024 said participants had mixed information on how to apply and what criteria it had to meet. It also said that the process was “confusing”.
An advertising campaign would have to be somewhat extravagant to make the case that the UK was the world’s top recruiter of scientists and tech experts. The government would also have to establish how quickly it wants processing to take and which individuals it is planning to poach. The complexity of these issues may be brushed off by good speech-writing but a changed Global Talent visa could be yet another flakey promise that fails to get the economic results the UK desperately needs.