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?”
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
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)