I have friends/previous-students who have gone to Europe with <200hrs total time, SEP only, and come back with an EASA ME IR(H) first time pass and first twin rating for the quoted £26k.
I have no idea why you would choose to spend twice that for the same rating in the UK. It might be said that you get what you pay for, but in reality you either pay £26k for an EASA ME IR(H), or twice that. Still looks the same in your licence, and in reality if you can pass your IRT then you have the adequate skills to do that very familiar route/approach that you've practiced a handful of times. You will learn to fly IFR properly on the line with experience captains and they don't care where you did your IR course...