Oral Answers to Questions

Angus Robertson Excerpts

Wednesday 13th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If Labour wanted to have a constructive opinion, they would come along and say, “How can we help knock down these sink estates, rebuild new houses, help people to own their own homes?” That is what we want to do, and that is what we are going to see in this Parliament: one side committed to opportunity, life chances, helping people get on, and another side wanting to keep people trapped in poverty.

[Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP)]

The economic and intellectual contribution of college and university graduates to the UK is immense. The Smith commission said that the UK and Scottish Government should

“explore the possibility of introducing formal schemes to allow international higher education students graduating from Scottish further and higher education institutions to remain in Scotland and contribute to economic activity for a defined period of time.”

Why did the UK Government this week unilaterally rule out a return of a post-study work visa without stakeholder discussions and before key parliamentary reports?

[The Prime Minister]

We have an excellent scheme that covers, of course, Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it is this: to say to the world’s students that there is no limit on the number of people who can come and study in British universities as long as they have two things—an English language qualification and a place at a university. That is an incredibly generous and open offer. The second thing we offer is that there is actually no limit on the number of people who can stay after they have graduated, as long as they have a graduate-level job. Again, I think that is an incredibly clear message that all of us—whether we are involved in the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Administration, the Welsh Administration or the United Kingdom Administration—should get out and sell around the world. It is a world-beating offer; we want the world’s brightest graduates to come here, study here and then work here—what a great deal!

[Angus Robertson]

The return of post-study visas is supported by, among others, all of Scotland’s 25 publicly funded colleges, Colleges Scotland, Universities Scotland, the representative body for Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions, many other organisations and businesses, and all parties, including the Scottish Conservative party, so why does the Prime Minister think they are all wrong and he is right?

[The Prime Minister]

For the reason I have given, which is that the clarity of our offer is world beating. There is a disadvantage to inventing a new post-work study route, where we are effectively saying to people coming to our universities, “It’s okay to stay with a less-than-graduate job.” Frankly, there are lots of people in our own country desperate for those jobs and we should be training them up and skilling them up. We do not need the world’s brightest and best to come here to study and then to do menial labour jobs. That is not what our immigration system is for. What we want is a system where we can advertise to the world—“Come and study here. Come and work here”—and that is the system we have and should keep.