Luke Sullivan, a former political secretary to Starmer, now a director at consultancy Headland, said Reform’s indefinite leave to remain announcement demonstrated the “complex” policy area is “fraught with political and economic trade-offs.”
The top talent Reeves is hoping to attract is listening.
Even without being implemented, Reform’s proposals would “have a negative impact on the attractiveness of the U.K. as a destination for the world’s brightest and best researchers because people may worry their right to be in the country could be taken away,” Alicia Greated, executive director of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, said.
“Retrospective changes of this sort would be extremely damaging to U.K. R&D and the wider economy, as well as individuals and their families,” she added.
Eamonn Ives, research director at The Entrepreneurs’ Network, a London-based think tank that advises on entrepreneur-friendly policies, agreed that international talent needs certainty.
“Instead of jeopardizing the residency status of immigrants already here, we should be doing all we can to welcome the world’s brightest and best,” he said.
“That means having pathways in place to enable international talent to come here, and then giving them the certainty they need to settle down and start building lucrative companies,” he added.