Why does it take JD Vance to remind Britain immigration is silent thief to its wealth - Lee Cohen

Suella Braverman reacts to US Vice President JD Vance blaming Britain’s economic problems on migration

GB News
Lee Cohen

By Lee Cohen


Published: 21/03/2025

- 11:15

OPINION: Lee Cohen was adviser on Great Britain to the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee and founded the Congressional United Kingdom Caucus said immigration is not merely a cultural challenge; it is an exponential economic burden Britain can ill afford.

Britain faces a pressing crisis, yet the noteworthy warning comes not from Westminster, but from Washington. Why must America’s Vice President, JD Vance, be the one to highlight an undeniable truth: immigration is silently draining Britain’s wealth?

Speaking at the American Dynamism Summit on March 18, Vance described Britain as stagnating, overly reliant on cheap labour rather than pursuing sustainable growth.



His assessment is incisive—and it exposes a failure of the Blob. Immigration is not merely a cultural challenge; it is an exponential economic burden Britain can ill afford. It is time for Britain to confront this reality and reclaim its financial sovereignty.

Vance’s verdict was razor-sharp. He argued Western nations, Britain included, have traded innovation for the crutch of imported workers, a critique that echoes the warnings of Britain’s clear-eyed realists.

The numbers tell a grim tale: billions flow annually to sustain migrants who often give little back, dragging down GDP per capita and stifling wages. The NHS groans under extended waiting lists, schools overflow, and housing becomes a luxury—strains every Briton feels.

Yet why does this clarity sail across the Atlantic while domestic leaders dodge or dither? Vance’s call should shame them into action.

The financial wound is undeniable. Estimates suggest Britain spends £8-10 billion yearly on asylum support, housing, and services; hotels for Channel crossers, plus welfare for some foreign nationals.

This haul could rekindle dying industries, train British workers, or mend crumbling roads. Instead, it props up a system where certain migrant groups lean harder on benefits than natives do. Vance’s stagnation diagnosis lands like a hammer blow—Britain is buckling under this load.

So why does it take an outsider to spotlight what successive UK governments seem too timid to tackle?

Suella Braverman, Nigel Farage, and some notable others break the mold. On GB News, March 19, 2025, Braverman the former Home Secretary hailed Vance’s words as a "wake-up call," decrying immigration’s economic toll. Taxpayer-funded migrant housing isn’t just a logistical headache—it’s a fiscal hemorrhage.

Vance’s outsider lens pierces the fog, but why must Britain rely on him to spark this reckoning? Too many in power cling to platitudes, more obsessed with globalist applause than national resilience. His intervention isn’t just a critique—it’s a lifeline. Britain must seize it.

Is anyone else in Westminster fighting for Britain’s future? Common sense screams that an economy should serve its own first. Donald Trump embodies this in America: ironclad borders and domestic jobs fuel a roaring comeback. Vance, his deputy, pushes the same creed—tariffs and tech to resurrect industry.

Britain could mirror this, reviving its manufacturing soul and slashing reliance on foreign hands. But that dream withers while billions bleed into an immigration system yielding scant returns. Why does Vance have to flag this mismatch when the evidence screams from every strained street corner?

The proof is inescapable. Housing prices soar as supply chokes under population pressures—net migration hit 672,000 in 2023, yet homebuilding lags at 234,000 annually. The NHS, with 7.6 million on waiting lists, staggers under demand from those who haven’t built it, even as migrant staff prop it up.

JD Vance

JD Vance has hit out at Europe and the UK over Britain

GB News

Roads and rails creak from unplanned growth, a legacy of policy cowardice. Vance’s stagnation charge isn’t rhetoric—it’s arithmetic, born of choices favoring open borders over economic backbone. Taxpayers foot the bill, yet Whitehall offers shrugs, not solutions.

Why does it take an American to name what Britons already know? Vance delivers a brutal truth: immigration is eroding Britain’s wealth, each new arrival widening the gap.

This isn’t about division—it’s about duty. Britain isn’t the world’s bottomless well; it’s a nation with limits and a promise to its people.

Trump and Vance are forging America anew with borders, nationalism, and gutsy leadership. Britain could follow—staunch the flow, redirect funds homeward, rebuild.

That £8-10 billion burden validates Vance’s warning and begs for resolve. So why does he have to ignite this debate?

I’m an American, and I believe Britain deserves better. Your nation, our mother country, isn’t lost, but its wealth is trickling away. Vance’s transatlantic jolt shouldn’t be the lone prod—yet it’s a thunderclap.

Why does it take America’s Vice President to sharpen Britain’s focus? Because too many in power have shut their eyes.

The hour is late for Britain to act, shield its prosperity, and put its people first. Wake up, Westminster—Vance has lit the way. Will you follow?