Ed Davey has urged Keir Starmer to create a new visa route so that Americans seeking to flee the Trump presidency.
The Lib Dem leader said it should target wealthy Americans so they can “bring their money and their skills” to the UK.
UK immigration lawyers said earlier this week that they have received a spike in inquiries from “mobile, wealthy individuals in tech, law, and the arts” who are “worried about socially conservative policies that Trump could introduce once in office” so they are wanting to move to other countries, such as Britain.
In PMQs, he asked: “An idea for the chancellor to grow the economy: as President-elect Trump prepares to take office next week, there are reports that a number of wealthy, highly-skilled Americans are looking to come to the UK for fear of what President-elect Trump will do to their country.
“But because the Conservatives so broke the immigration system, many of them are finding there is no visa that they can apply for.
“Now I know the Prime Minister is rightly seeking to reduce immigration from the record highs of the Conservatives, but does he agree: if people like this want to come to our country, to bring their money and their skills, so we can grow our economy and pay for our public services, they should be able to?”
if i was fleeing trump, england wouldnt be my first choice of destination
I left the US during Obama’s time in office, and for family rather than political reasons, but I’ve found that the quality of life here is excellent. My advice: avoid London, which is insanely expensive, overcrowded, polluted, and full of money-grubbing finance weasels and slimy foreign oligarchs and those who pander to them. Also, London has too many Americans from the finance sector, so Americans are not well-liked there. I live in the South West, which has (by English standards at least) good weather, beautiful and varied countryside, and down-to-earth no-bullshit people. Also, their accent is less abrasive than many in England.
With England, there’s London, which is an international hub city, then there’s the rest of the country. They’re not the same. Make sure to experience both before deciding.
And yeah, you don’t need to learn a new language, though cultural norms are different and it takes a while to understand the unwritten rules.
My advice: avoid London
That is how the rest of the country feels too!
Also, their accent is less abrasive than many in England.
Steady on!
but if you’re trans, queer, or a refugee (which most people fleeing trump would be), it’s not the friendliest place right now.
No language barrier and free healthcare are two huge incentives. I admit, we’re going to hear a lot about him, but at least he won’t be the prime minister.
Me neither but if you can’t get to New Zealand or, possibly, Ireland it may be better than staying put.
Dunno, it feels like rich Yanks are what got everything to this point. How about we grant asylum to Americans who are at the greatest risk of persecution?
Dunno, it feels like rich Yanks are what got everything to this point.
Yeah. If you accept any of our billionaires onto your shores, be sure to eat them promptly. They spoil quickly, and it makes a mess.
How about we grant asylum to Americans who are at the greatest risk of persecution?
At the moment that includes well educated Americans, so that could work.
Yeah. If you accept any of our billionaires onto your shores, be sure to eat them promptly. They spoil quickly, and it makes a mess.
I’ll start cutting the veg and get my biggest stew pot out.
At the moment that includes well educated Americans, so that could work.
Happy to brain drain the States, leave it to the idiots who voted in Orange Shitler. Which includes at least one of my second cousins, I suspect. The others are eligible for British citizenship so…
Can ypu afford that?
Most migrants workers are net contributors to the economy and those fleeing Trump would tend to be better educated and higher earners, so would definitely put more in than they take out.
Starmer can’t afford to do it politically.
@[email protected] tagging you in case this turns out to be helpful for you 👍
Thanks! Getting a child visa for my kid is not going to be a problem, but getting a family visa so my wife can come over and look for work once she gets here is a giant pain in the ass, so hopefully Starmer will do something. I’m not especially confident that he will, but we can hope.
I won’t hold my breath but I will be keeping an eye on this. I had been eligible for a HPI visa and fully intended to apply, but life got in the way while I was saving up and the clock ran out.
I’m a licensed architect in the states and the only thing keeping me from becoming a chartered architect via reciprocity is it requires a visa. It’s tough convincing a company to sponsor me via the skilled worker route because I’m not already chartered. Kind of a chicken-and-egg scenario. So this visa route would genuinely help people like me.
I won’t hold my breath but I will be keeping an eye on this.
Yeah, Starmer’s reply utterly dodges the issue. While there are good grounds for making some immigration easier he has said he’ll get the numbers down, so any slackening of the laws now would get him (another) kicking by the right wing media.
I could see a media frenzy being manufactured over rich Yanks coming in with their money and making housing even less affordable.
True but the way Ed Davey is pitching it, the numbers would be limited. We’d probably not hate them far more for just being rich Yanks.
What constitutes rich here? Asking for a friend
There’s different numbers from different places, depending on if they’re just looking at full time only or including part time, employees or all incomes, and if they’re looking at individuals or households.
(All numbers below are approximate)
From a vague mish-mash of sources, in the UK, an individual income of about £80,000 (about £55,000 after Tax & National Insurance) puts you in the “top 5%” of earners. 95% of the country earns less than you. That may meet many people’s definition of rich.
About £100,000 per year is “top 2%” and it’s about £160,000 to be “top 1%” (those “one percenters” we used to talk about).
Where you consider “rich” to start is a matter of personal preference.
Many people use personal measures like “twice what I earn is rich”, regardless of how much they earn, so for example, an average person in the UK with an income of about £30,000 (~top 50%), may feel a £60,000 (top 7%) earner is “a rich, la-de-dah bastard”, whereas the £60,000 earner feels like they are “just about managing”, but feels that someone on £120,000 is “a poncey rich twat”.
I wonder though if Davey is thinking more of the “1% of the 1%” millionaires etc.
The piece says:
UK immigration lawyers said earlier this week that they have received a spike in inquiries from “mobile, wealthy individuals in tech, law, and the arts” who are “worried about socially conservative policies that Trump could introduce once in office” so they are wanting to move to other countries, such as Britain.
So anyone doing well in those industries.
Poncey, rich twats, in other words.
I live well below my means over here, so that I can afford to travel. Compared to the US, the number of low-cost travel destinations here is amazing. And because I’m living in a house similar to everyone else’s, the resentment towards me as a “rich Yank” is much less. They dislke flashy people here (I’m not in London, it’s different there), but are quite warm as long as you don’t act like an entitled knobhead.
They dislke flashy people here (I’m not in London, it’s different there), but are quite warm as long as you don’t act like an entitled knobhead.
To be honest, that’s probably how most Brits are unless you land in a very small and remote village where it can get a bit… Slaughtered Lamb.
I do like the angle.
Are the Americans going to reciprocate if the Tories ever get back in?
You are joking, right? While tories are fucked up reactionaries, in the US you only have two parties: centre-right and batshit crazy far right.
The UK effectively only has two parties. There’s a lot of little ones but none of the others are ever going to gain power.
Labour, plus the lib Dems if they can be bothered but probably not.
And the inevitable Tory Reform coalition / Nigel farage just becomes a Tory
There is just this depressing inevitability about the whole thing
but none of the others are ever going to gain power.
Unless in a position such as the batshit insane DUP where they had a confidence & supply agreement with Theresa Mays govt
Luckily the DUP were mercenary enough to just grab a few billion in public funds to disburse to their cronies, rather than attempting to influence policy.
Fuck that. I’d want the Irish to let me have a passport because my closest Irish ancestor is my great-grandfather. I’m three quarters Irish but most came over during the Potato Famine.
You’d fit right in with most Americans, as they like to go around claiming Irish heritage and a lot of them have a much more tenuous link than yourself.
In Liverpool Irish heritage is almost taken for granted - amongst my immediate friends, the majority could get an Irish passport, only myself and one other friend miss out by a generation, then there’s a few Welsh thrown into the mix. Even my American second cousins don’t make a big deal about it, although they feel very affectionate about Liverpool - one even started their honeymoon here, which struck everyone else as a bit of a waste.
I remember me and my sister imploring our mum to get one so we could get one in 2016, but she wouldn’t see the point of it.
You’re right, the Irish find it insufferable when Americans come over and do that.
Irish is the largest component in my own mongrel mix, and my surname’s Irish, but when I meet Irish people, I’ll say “ancestry isn’t culture, and I know that,” in order to clear the air. My most recent Irish immigrant ancestor arrived in the 1880s. All I got from them is too many freckles, a red beard and an uncanny ability to drink alcohol without getting a hangover (I make lots of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase).
The cut off is grandparents. I know as I’m entitled to Irish citizenship via my grandmother (as soon as I get a copy of her death certificate)
