Rachel Reeves

Well, I was with Scott last week in Washington.

I'm seeing Secretary Lutnick later today.

Our Prime Minister spoke to President Trump just over the weekend.

You know, as you would expect, there are very close relations between our country at all levels.

So I believe in free and fair trade.

I believe in the benefits to businesses and also consumers of open economies.

Economies that are open to trade, open to investment and open to talent.

have always been the most successful economies.

And I want Britain, even in a world where others are putting up barriers to trade and investment and talent, for Britain to be breaking down those barriers.

And we are announcing today further changes in our global talent routes into the UK.

for three particular types of visa.

The first is for foreign businesses looking to expand their footprint in the UK, working with them so that they can bring in talent as they expand their footprint.

Second, for UK businesses in our industrial strategy sectors, which includes financial services, business services, creative industries, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, defence, etc.,

For those businesses, if they are bringing in talent from overseas into the UK, the fees for those visas will be waived.

And then the third announcement today is that for really great talent looking to come to UK universities,

Again, we'll waive those visas as well as a specific scheme for people, gold medalists in the Maths Olympiad, offering a number of scholarships to UK universities for those people.

Because we want Britain to be a magnet for global talent in the same way we want it to be the best place in the world to trade from and to invest in.

No, it was very clear in our manifesto that we wouldn't be rejoining the single market, the customs union, or bringing back free movement of labour.

But what we have done already is brought back the Erasmus scheme, which enables young people both from the UK to go and study at European universities and young people from Europe to come and study at our brilliant universities elsewhere.

in the UK.