What is ‘global Britain’ without foreigners?

▶ Students and workers are leaving the UK en masse ... and taking their talent with them

Data reported by the official UK’s official statistics agency suggests that 594,000 foreign workers have left the country in the past year.

It is a staggering figure, and it is reasonable to approach it with a degree of scepticism. Reliable data is difficult to gather amid a pandemic. But if the UK is serious about creating a post-Brexit “Global Britain”, these numbers indicate a trend that should cause concern in Whitehall.

This has, of course, been a uniquely tough year for the whole world. But the UK’s especially chaotic handling of the continuing coronavirus pandemic, and its economic impacts, has dissuaded many non-Britons from pursuing work or other prospects in the UK.

One hugely profitable sector that has ground to a halt is tourism and hospitality. In 2019, there were 40.9 million visits to the UK, bringing $37.5 billion in revenue. A lack of tourists means potentially permanent damage to restaurants, hotels and countless cultural institutions.

A particularly lucrative part of Britain’s economy is the university sector, in which international students are a fundamental driver. They have become, in many ways, key to British universities’ survival.

Since the onset of the pandemic, however, resentment among students is growing unchecked. It is particularly high among foreign students, who pay significantly higher fees. Over the past decade, since the election of the Conservative Party under David Cameron, opportunities for overseas students to live and work in the UK after their studies have been steadily curtailed. The alienation of these students, even after they were identified as a priority in the government’s “Britain is Great” campaign, is out of sync with the Brexit brief of creating a global Britain.

Fears over their fate have become so severe that in 2016 India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, made a prospective UK-India trade deal conditional upon easier access to the UK for Indian students.

A story in The National about a surge in UAE students heading for US universities after the election of Joe Biden demonstrates that the global student body has other options. Many having begun to factor political stability in to their calculations; they have never been the most financially secure demographic. And while Britain is still home to the English-speaking world’s oldest universities, it may no longer be the safest of harbours.

Many Britons seem to agree with that assessment, too. A study published in August found that migration from the UK to the EU had increased by 30 per cent since the Brexit referendum. The study also established that migrants from the UK were some of the best educated and highest-earning of any group.

A drain of talent, in universities or in the work force, threatens to erase the image of Britain as a global hub. That image was built over the course of the 20th century, in large part as a result of Conservative policies.

If Mr Johnson loses the confidence of his most well-educated compatriots, many in his party will not forgive him.