Gyimah says he understands post-Brexit visa concerns

Universities have the government’s ear on the introduction of salary thresholds for all skilled workers applying for a job in the UK after Brexit, science minister Sam Gyimah has said.

As employers of tens of thousands of European Economic Area nationals, universities reacted with alarm to comments earlier this month by the home secretary Sajid Javid, who said the government was to keep a salary threshold for skilled migrants and could also extend it to EEA citizens after Brexit.

But in an exclusive interview with Research Fortnight on 10 October, Gyimah said he had listened to the concerns raised by universities about the effect that this policy would have on their ability to recruit from the EEA and the spiralling costs of doing so.