Legal News

With almost all the Liberal Democrat MPs polled saying that the new immigration policy was going to hurt UK’s economy Chancellor George Osborne insisted that immigration controls should not keep the brightest and the best foreign workers out of the UK.
Mr Osborne said the Government should lay to rest any doubts and must work to change any perception that talented overseas PhD students were no longer welcome to study in Britain.
But he defended the latest immigration controls, which include higher standards of English literacy and refusing overseas graduates the right to stay in the UK unless they had a job with a salary above £20,000.
He added that the universities in the UK needed support as they were one of the jewels in the crown of the British economy.
It is fantastic that unlike sadly many countries on the continent, UK still had leading institutions that could hold their own against the best American institutions, and increasingly Chinese and Indian institutions.
UK has to make sure that the best people were attracted towards it which means a visa regime that controls UK immigration that caps UK immigration, but makes sure that when there is an exceptional talent like a scientist or indeed a PhD student that they feel able to come to this country and do their work in the UK.
Speaking on Radio Four’s Today programme, Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, told the Chancellor his scientific colleagues from around the world were no longer feeling that they were welcome to come into the UK.
Mr Osborne replied if that was the perception then that has to change because it did not match with the actual reality of the regime.
He added that immigration control was a must and the public had lost confidence in the immigration control, so it was important that the Government gets public confidence in immigration control.
But immigration control should not keep out the brightest and the best from around the world.
The Government recently announced academics could stay in the UK for up to a year after completing a PhD here and there was also a fast-track route into the country for scientists of “exceptional talent”, he said.
People with real talent and ability and significant educational achievement behind them – they should have no problem in coming and working here,” he said.
His vow came as the findings of a poll of MPs indicated a stark division on the issue between the coalition parties.
Every Lib Dem interviewed by Ipsos Mori agreed that restrictions on migrants will harm the competitiveness of the UK economy compared with just nine per cent of Conservatives polled.
Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable has previously warned that Britain’s economic future depends on being “open to overseas talent” in business, science and academia.