Unpacking the New Labour Government’s Immigration Policy

The British public voted decisively last week for a new Labour Government, so what changes could this bring to the UK’s immigration policy?

Before we delve into potential changes, it’s important to point out that the Government has yet to officially announce any major changes to the immigration system (bar scrapping the Rwanda plan and introducing the Border Security Command, which is focused on illegal migration only). However, the Labour party made several commitments in its manifesto (detailed below), which it will be expected to uphold now that it has won the general election.

Skilled Workers vs British Workers

Perhaps the biggest imminent change are potential new laws to prevent employer reliance on the Skilled Worker visa route. Employers will be encouraged away from using the route as a default when looking to employ new workers, in a bid to give priority to British nationals. The new Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also vowed to train more UK workers and strengthen employee rights, so that the tendency to look overseas when filling gaps in the labour market is reduced. The Government is especially focused on foreign worker reliance in sectors such as health and social care, engineering, construction and IT. During the election campaign, the Labour party said it would introduce legislation aimed at ‘skills improvement plans’ in these high-migration sectors. However, how these plans would be enacted remains unknown, and it is not clear whether there will be any limits placed on the number of Skilled Worker visas (the Labour manifesto simply said that there would be ‘appropriate restrictions on visas’).

With major worker shortages in key sectors (not least the NHS) and very little funding available for new training programmes, apprenticeships or medical school places, it’s important for the government to recognise the crucial and important role that migrant workers play in our economy; as things currently stand, British workers alone will not be able to fill every gap in the labour market. While upskilling the local workforce is a crucial step towards reducing the current record net migration figures, the reality is that we will need migrants for many years into the future to ensure our nation’s prosperity and sustained economic growth.

More of the same?

There are a number of areas of UK immigration that seem to be staying largely the same, with no significant proposed changes (at least not yet). For example, the Government has ‘no plans’ to reverse the ban on Health and Care Workers bringing their dependants with them when they take up a job in the UK. Another ban which looks to be maintained is the prohibition of foreign students (except those on postgraduate research courses) bringing family members to the UK. The points-based system is also set to stay, as is the overall view that net migration is too high and needs to come down, which was shared by the last Conservative Government too – though it does not seem that the Labour Government is committed to the now-infamous Conservative target of reducing net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’. Indeed Labour hasn’t set any target levels of where they think net migration should be, statistically. They say that events including the Covid pandemic and war in Ukraine showed that fluctuations in migration occur naturally, and that as such any targets would be pointless and meaningless. Although, last year before the election was announced, a Labour minister said that net migration of ‘a couple of hundred thousand a year’ would be a ‘normal level’.

It’s also worth pointing out that the previous Government’s ‘Five-Point Plan’ which we analysed a few articles ago has either been kept or not commented on by the new Starmer ministry; none of it has been scrapped yet but it is still early days.

The new Government should recognise the uncertainty and, in some cases, devastation that the ban on dependants continues to cause to many people around the world who dreamt of a better life for themselves and their families in the UK. It should also confirm as soon as possible which parts of the last Government’s ‘Five-Point Plan’ will be scrapped and which will be kept, to give future migrants the peace of mind which they have rarely received since the Brexit referendum.

Zero-tolerance approach to exploitation

The Government has also pledged to crackdown on abuse of the visa system, by barring employers and recruitment agencies who breach employment law from hiring workers from abroad.  Individual companies may be disallowed from sponsoring workers if they aren’t considered to be providing adequate workforce training, and enforcement measures may be introduced to investigate and reduce exploitation of migrant workers under the Health and Care and Seasonal Workers visa routes.

Whilst the Government’s attempts to prevent migrant exploitation are obviously welcome, the impact that a lack of dependants has on migrants and whether this makes them more susceptible to being exploited should also be investigated. So too should the impact of tying a sponsored work visa to a particular employer/sponsor which is widely considered to increase the risk of exploitation.

Conclusion: let’s wait and see…

The new Government undeniably has a packed in-tray of issues to find solutions to, particularly around immigration. Even with the majority of the public supporting a reduction in immigration levels, the Government should not shy away from fully understanding and appreciating the role that migrants have in our society. They will be key to our future success as a developed nation, especially with our ageing population, and this cannot be underestimated. For the time being, only minor changes are expected to occur to the UK immigration system under the new Government; it remains to be seen whether they will make bolder moves as time goes on. One beacon of hope is that the new Labour Government seems set to scrap the failed Rwanda plan championed by ex-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Until any official announcements on new policy are unveiled, we can only speculate on future changes. The coming months (and years) will reveal it’s the detail of any new policies – careful consideration will need to be made as to the impact on both the nation and those seeking to make it their home.