"Britain Trump"

From extortionate visa fees to dodgy statistics, Donald Trump is making the US more — not less — like the UK

Keir Starmer hosts Donald Trump (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street Flickr)

Maybe it’s the fact that I have flu-adjacent symptoms for the second time in three weeks (my earlobes ache — who knew there were even pain receptors there?) but I think I might be losing it. Not long ago, Rachel Reeves attended the opening of a new office for British fintech startup Revolut, and made the following claim:

While President Trump announced late last week that it will make it harder to bring talent to the US, we want to make it easier to bring talent to the UK.

Reeves was referring to a statement made by the president, in which he confirmed a 50-fold rise in the cost of skilled-worker permits (known as H-1B visas, which makes them sound like a strain of bird flu) to $100,000 (£74,000). Sensing an opportunity, the UK government reportedly plans to double the number of high-skilled foreign worker visas to around 18,000 a year. What’s not to like?

(Simon Walker / HM Treasury flickr)

Well, UK visa costs are already somewhere between off-puttingly high and astronomical. Married as I am to an Australian, I speak from bitter experience. The headline rate for a UK Global Talent visa of £766 may seem reasonable, but it is so misleading as to be irrelevant. Ian Robinson, head of UK practice at global mobility company Vialto Partners, told the Financial Times that fees incurred by a family of four who settle after five years on a skilled worker visa reached £43,000 before tax.

It gets worse. If this is covered by the employer, it may be treated as a benefit in kind and therefore taxable to the employee, taking the total cost to £72,000 or $97,000. In other words, close to what Donald Trump is proposing. And that is before the government considers doubling the period of time migrants must live in the UK before receiving indefinite leave to remain.

Lies, damn lies and statistical agencies

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (Zone 2, unfurnished, £2,000 pcm, bills not included), my hunch is that you’re vaguely aware Trump recently fired Erika McEntarfer, head of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, for no other reason than the agency produced some statistics that contradicted the MAGA view that the US economy is booming.