According to US Vice President JD Vance, high levels of immigration have caused Britain’s economy to stagnate, arguing that European nations are “growing stupid” and relying excessively on” cheap labor” rather than productivity improvement.
Vance said at a conference held in Washington, DC, that venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz hosted,” I’d say that almost every country, from Canada to the UK, has imported a lot of affordable labor, and productivity has stagnated. That’s never a complete accident. I believe the relationship is really direct.
Vance claimed that the US had been “addicted to low labor” for 40 times and blamed the issue on a lack of successful economic policies.
The vice president defended new tariffs by US President Donald Trump as a “necessary application to protect our work and our sectors from other countries.”
Trump’s 25 % tariffs on imported iron and steel from the UK have dragged the country into its trade war. Additionally, he has suggested a 20 % tax on imported wine and spirits from Europe.
Vance argued that the US’s manufacturing sector would be rebuilt by combining taxes, sophisticated technology, and lower energy costs. When you build a tariff wall around a crucial sector like auto manufacturing and combine that with superior robotics, lower energy costs, and other tools that boost US labor productivity, he said, “you give American workers a calculating effect.”
Since he has repeatedly criticised Britain since taking office in January, his latest notes are likely to cause further hostilities between the US and the UK. He cited the imprisonment of Adam Smith-Connor, who was found guilty in 2022 of silently praying outside an abortion clinic as evidence at the Munich Security Conference last month.
Vance also sparked controversy earlier this month by making the claim that Britain had never “fought a conflict in 30 or 40 years.”
According to The Daily Mirror, his statements sparked a reaction, with critics pointing out that 636 American soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan while fighting alongside the US. Eventually, Vicenza made an effort to understand his remarks, insisting that he was not referring to France or the UK, but did not specify which nations he meant.
His assertion received a lot of negative reviews, with UK PM Keir Starmer’s director confirming that the country “is full of adulation” for its soldiers ‘ service.
Reform UK head Nigel Farage even disputed Vance’s claim that” for 20 years in Afghanistan, we spent the same amount of cash, we put the exact number of men and women in, and we suffered the same loss.” He also said that Vance’s remarks were “wrong, wrong, and bad.”
