Rishi Sunak is ‘delivering for the British people’ by making the UK less attractive to overseas students
It’s a good idea to start the new year as you mean to go on. Get that gym membership, start reading more books, buy cheap Christmas chocolate …your choice.
The PM decided to start 2024 like he spent 2023 – by throwing a bit of red meat to the anti-immigration lobby.
Far from delivering for anybody, the policy is likely to deter students from choosing the UK. This would deprive the country of important research, with potential funding repercussions, while making life more difficult for those students who come anyway.
This policy will significantly damage the funding of uk universities as international students go elsewhere.
That means that a generation of Britons will pay more to go to college and university and that it will become the preserve of the rich.
— Otto English (@Otto_English) January 1, 2024
To give credit where it’s due, it’s impressive that the UK government has found a bit of intact foot to shoot.
The bitter New Year’s message got the reaction you’d expect.
1.
What better way to start the new year than with a xenophobic self-harming dog-whistle in a desperate bid to appease the dregs of society? https://t.co/Z3rNkdxEWK
— Parody Rishi Sunak (@Parody_PM) January 1, 2024
2.
I don’t reckon even the biggest racists out there had banning students from bringing their families to the UK on their 2024 wish list…
— Marina Purkiss (@MarinaPurkiss) January 1, 2024
3.
I love how this is presented as some sort of win.
It simply means students will choose to go elsewhere, bringing their fees and also likely settling with their expertise somewhere else.
We are competing for talent like this, you have to be quite thick not to understand this. pic.twitter.com/h0qvR9qfuI
— Brendan May (@bmay) January 1, 2024
4.
I look at a LOT of opinion polling on immigration, and I just don’t think cutting the family rights of foreign students is something the country desperately wants.
We want a fucking funded health service and some fucking affordable homes. You useless fucking pricks. https://t.co/dqefGns3it
— Zoe Gardner (@ZoeJardiniere) January 1, 2024
5.
The only way pampered prince Sunak and his Tory dismals are ‘delivering for the British people’ is by making themselves unelectable.
This kind of tiny-minded, self-harming idiocy can only help. There is no feel-good, hope or, ultimately, success in bigotry and stupidity. pic.twitter.com/bfHsp2uKQR
— sarah murphy (@13sarahmurphy) January 1, 2024
6.
Have a day off! Honestly.
How many people in Britain are desperately waiting for a message about banning university students' families on New Year's Day?! https://t.co/7QALyl0nsJ
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) January 1, 2024
7.
a: In what way is this delivering for the British people?
b: Are there hard figures for the numbers of foreign students bringing family members to the UK? (Actual figures not something a swivel-eyed backbencher dreamed up.)
c: This tweet is vile, xenophobic & shames us all.— Sarah Phelps (@PhelpsieSarah) January 1, 2024
8.
I run down the stairs, tears in my eyes, clutching this tweet in my hand. "WIFE! WIFE! THEY'VE DONE IT! They've stopped a Chinese student from bringing their mother over to the UK! They've delivered for the British people! All of our many, many problems are over now I assume!" https://t.co/jhQwsVOLWg
— Jack Bernhardt (@jackbern23) January 1, 2024
9.
Sunak is boasting about separating families? Shameful https://t.co/SQsUWklmjn
— Diane Abbott MP (@HackneyAbbott) January 1, 2024
10.
Sunak's legacy: pointless human pain. And taking the one chance Britain had for improved railway infrastructure to put money instead into…. potholes. A hopeless, almost gormless politician. https://t.co/mGcRe8frXw
— Sathnam Sanghera (@Sathnam) January 1, 2024
11.
“We’re delivering for the British people by making foreign students lonely and sad.” https://t.co/VpXTAfujmy
— Marty Lawrence (@TeaAndCopy) January 1, 2024
12.
Fabulous. Policy that makes it less attractive for foreign students to come – foreign student who are a financial net positive to universities. https://t.co/mX0y5nXMzR
— Dr Adam Rutherford (@AdamRutherford) January 1, 2024
13.
The British people will deliver you a wipeout soon enough.
Keep us waiting and make us even angrier.
Then see what happens.
— Robbie Scowls (@RScowler) January 1, 2024
14.
Imagine being proud of this. Like, Happy New Year from the UK. Welcome to another year of petty policies aimed solely at bolstering this wounded, limping government. https://t.co/ZTBWA4euq6
— Joanna Hardy-Susskind (@Joanna__Hardy) January 1, 2024
15.
Evil.
— Farrukh (@implausibleblog) January 1, 2024
16.
In 2024, I would like to see slightly higher expectations of the British people pic.twitter.com/rA2N9FJx8R
— James Harris (@JamesHarrisNow) January 1, 2024
When’s that general election happening?
The fact that you’re reduced to conflating being pointlessly cruel to foreigners with “delivering for the British people” is why you deserve not just to be defeated, but crushed, destroyed, humiliated and banished from office for generations. https://t.co/OAGuzKnK3x
— Mitch Benn (@MitchBenn) January 1, 2024
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Source Rishi Sunak Image Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels