To end the week, we present a slightly overdue recognition of Labour MP Iain Wright of Hartlepool’s – also Chair of the BIS Select Committee – who spoke at the Chartered Association of Business School Annual Conference that took place in Manchester between the 9th and 10th of November.
Unfortunately we are unable to find his full speech, however The Mancunion has extracted a fair amount from his “passionate speech” calling for change to the new visa regime, exclaiming, “It is absolute madness to have a system where we educate people to highest level to then have them leave. This will affect our level of competitiveness. There needs to be more coordination between select committees to get through to the Home Office to ensure things will change.”
The article reports from his speech: “countries like the US, Canada and Germany are actively encouraging those talented business leaders of the future, those entrepreneurs of the 21st century, to settle in their countries and set up businesses there…Why on earth do we allow skills learned in this country to quickly and directly benefit other economies’ productivity?”
Mr Wright also said that the Home Office’s anti-immigration policies were “undermining the British status throughout the world’ and that the “government is not speaking with one voice”. He stated that David Cameron “needs to decide what’s best for Britain with regard to this” and that the Government seems to announce things “without any clue about how it’s supposed to deliver it”.
In a clear attack on the Conservative Government claiming it as “utter folly” to include international students in net migration targets, it is certain that Mr Wright has won over a few supporters in the HE sector.