Post-Brexit scheme to lure Nobel winners to UK fails to attract single applicant

Programme to allow those with prestigious global prizes to get fast-track visas dismissed as elitist' and a joke'

A post-Brexit scheme to draw the world's most celebrated academics and other leading figures to the UK has failed to attract a single applicant in the six months since it opened, it has been reported.

The visa route open to Nobel laureates and other prestigious global prize winners in the fields of science, engineering, humanities and medicine - among others - was described as a joke by experts after ministers admitted its failure to garner any interest.