AI Minister: Visa reform key to keeping tech giants in Britain
AI Minister Kanishka Narayan renewed calls for more visas for top engineers, arguing that the UK will need to do more to help tech companies scale at home rather than sell overseas.
In his first interview since joining Andy Burnham’s cabinet, Narayan said he would use his seat at the top table to push for visas for top engineers and planning reform for AI as part of a wider effort to build more globally competitive British tech companies.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Narayan said: “We are going to be the best, fastest partners to tech investors and others wanting to do business and create jobs in the UK.”
He also said Britain “can’t have a situation where the best shots that we have at large-scale economic value and strategic leverage for this country are started here, initially scaled here but ultimately supported elsewhere.”
Government’s talent and scale ambition
Narayan’s visa push builds on proposals he unveiled earlier this year to reimburse visa fees and speed up applications for AI specialists.
“With a dedicated AI stream for global talent, we are going to reimburse visa fees and accelerate visa processes, alongside a domestic obsession for training British kids in AI,” he told founders at the AI hub back in February.
The UK government has since launched a visa reimbursement scheme allowing eligible scale-ups in digital technology, life sciences and clean energy to reclaim up to £25,000 a year in immigration costs when recruiting overseas workers through the Skilled Worker, Global Talent and Scale-up visa routes.
The scheme forms part of a broader push to help high-growth companies “start, scale and stay” in Britain after ministers saw promising firms often relocate or list overseas as they expand.
Britain has produced a string of globally recognised tech companies, from semiconductor giant Arm to industry leaders Darktrace and Deliveroo.
Narayan said he welcomed foreign investment but wanted “the bulk of the economic value, the bulk of the strategic value and the jobs to stay here in the UK.” He added: “I would love for Britain to be a place where we are able to build a manufacturing ambition focused on AI chips as well.”
Britain’s Global Talent visa has proved one of the most resilient work routes despite a wider slowdown in migration, as according to Home Office figures for the first quarter of 2026, applications fell just 2.4 per cent year-on-year, but more than 99 per cent of decisions resulted in a visa being granted.
Charles Avens, head of immigration at Collyer Bristow, said Narayan’s ambitions were “not grounded in reality” while the UK continued to combine high business costs with what he described as “a UK visa system run by a hostile Home Office that makes it incredibly difficult for talent to come to the UK.”
He said the Global Talent visa remained too restrictive for many promising founders, with applicants often unable to meet the narrow evidential requirements despite having strong technical credentials.
Avens also criticised the Innovator Founder route, arguing the endorsement process was lengthy and unpredictable, while sponsorship costs for Skilled Worker visas had become so expensive that many smaller businesses were effectively priced out of hiring overseas specialists.
“Only very large companies can afford them,” he said. “All in all it is not a good picture for UK PLC, which dreams of being a tech, AI, engineering, pharma and life sciences superpower.”
Meanwhile, recent research from Boston Consulting Group also highlighted the importance of talent to the UK’s tech sector, as its Intelligent Cities Index ranked London among the world’s leading technology hubs. The management consultancy giant’s managing director, Arturs Smilkstins, argued that success depended less on new infrastructure than on “how well a city uses technology, AI and digital services” alongside its wider innovation ecosystem.