“The brain drain is happening,” Christine Jardine tells me, with clarity in her voice.
Her point is well taken — American scientists and engineers appear to be abandoning the chaos of a second Trump administration for more bearable climes elsewhere.
“There are more than 10,000 workers with PhDs in science, technology, engineering, maths and health who left the federal workforce because they were fired, they were tired, they quit,” the Edinburgh West MP remarks.
“And they have the skills that we need in this country, that we need to enhance our technology sector, our pharmaceutical sector, our research sector."
Ms Jardine, one of the few Liberal Democrats to serve in Westminster for the entirety of the last nine years, says the conversation first arose at their Scottish conference in Perth last year.
“Trump was a relatively new president, but people were getting very concerned about the attitude of his administration, particularly Robert Kennedy, about their attitudes towards areas like cancer research, AI, engineers, and the rolling back of protections and securities.
“And what we were thinking was that we needed a new way ahead … [We wanted to do] something that would help to encourage people with the skills that we need in areas like cancer research, AI, new technology, space science, encouraging those people who are under pressure in the United States to come here.”
Ms Jardine, herself a former journalist, lays out her argument with an analytical flourish.
“We have fantastic opportunities for people with PhDs who are doing research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, who at the moment are under pressure in the States and basically have been removed from the payroll.
“And we have people in America who have those skills and who feel unwanted in America at the moment and are being blocked in America. They can come here and we can benefit, our economy can grow. So it's not entirely altruistic.”
As the Labour government continues its crackdown on migration, aiming to stem the flow of small boats and the rise of Reform, such a strategy would appear to be at odds with the prevailing winds.
Yet, I wonder how exactly Ms Jardine’s scheme would work.
She tells me: “The UK already has a skilled visa route, so [it could include] the creation of a fast track visa or an encouragement of Americans to use it.
“It would be useful to have a particular fast track visa which we could create in Parliament for Americans. But, you know, that would mean creating a visa and getting maybe a bill through Parliament. But it's not the only thing we want to do.
“We've always worked closely with American scientists. You don't have to go far back into history. There is a kind of symbiotic relationship already and we should be doing everything we can. There's important scientific talent in the States and we can't let it evaporate or go unused.
“We can work together if they want to come here, if they're being blocked in the States, and we should be encouraging them to do that.”
I am keen to gauge the reaction to her proposals. A visa scheme which puts Americans at the front of the line is a gutsy move, especially given the state of world affairs.
Ms Jardine says she has been inundated with messages from Americans since she began speaking about her ideas last year.
“I've been taken aback at the number of Americans who have contacted me about it and the number of people with relatives in America who contacted me about it,” she notes.
“There is a general feeling that we do need to do something so that we don't lose the American capability that they do have in these areas, these specialist areas, because people do see that there is a change in American attitudes towards this research and we need those people here.”
Of course, it helps that Scottish academic excellence is known around the world.
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“I was over with the Scottish Affairs Committee in ‘24, just before the general election,” Ms Jardine says. “We visited Stanford and Columbia and New York Universities. And we also went to Washington and visited NASA. And everywhere we went, they talked about the know-how of Edinburgh University.
“They talked about… well, Dolly the Sheep was internationally renowned, but you've also got Peter Higgs, who discovered the Higgs boson particle and then had to wait until they could prove it with the Hadron Collider, but he got a Nobel Prize.”
As we wrap up our conversation, Ms Jardine is keen to get one final point across.
“The brain drain is happening,” she says. “America knows the brain drain is happening. They know that people are leaving.
“We want them to come here. We want to encourage them to come here. And that way, we can grow our economy.”
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