Jedibeeftrix

In Government, we provided Ukraine with brilliant, ground-breaking UK drone tech. As Minister, I launched a strategy to deliver that same kit for our own armed forces - at scale, in parallel. Then Labour froze procurement, and we’re still waiting for the Defence Investment Plan.

It’s a totally different situation in the UK post-Brexit to France where to juice growth figures, limit inflation and swap out reliance of workers from the Single Market the UK added some 6% of its population 2020-2024. Of these only 22% in the peak 1.1m visa issuing year of 2024 were to workers, heavily tilted to low paid labour for the social care sector. This Brexitwave were low wage workers and dependents mostly from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Unlike Single Market migrants who cannot claim asylum, tend to return home and don’t bring their families typically, this Brexitwave frequently claim asylum, seldom return and tend to bring their families as soon as the can. This is a simply costlier form of migration — and that is not judgement on what are good human beings from countries I would also have migrated from but simply what it means to UK public finances long term of adding these families, where most low wage labourers end up, on benefit rolls which unlike in Europe are not contributory but quasi-universal in payments. Whether we like it or not the UK post-Brexit model is simply not sustainable in the age of AI and robotics. Despite positive reductions in net migration under Labour, this year the UK saw 627k non-EU arrivals — the majority of whom excluding students were not on work visas. France has much lower figures only issuing 334k residence permits in 2024. This is not a value judgement on a multicultural society or about how immigration can enrich a culture — both can and have been deeply positive and must be defended by progressives without dipping into denialism about real problems where they arise — but a question of numbers and managing that for our era. Graph of UK public finances attached for context.