General Election 2024: Comparing the parties' manifesto pledges on immigration

In Brief...

• Conservatives: Propose a legal cap on visas, the Rwanda scheme, increasing the salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas, and health checks for legal migrants.
• Labour: Plan to create a Border Security Command, hire more caseworkers for the asylum backlog, establish a returns and enforcement unit, and collaborate with international partners on humanitarian issues.
• Liberal Democrats: Focus on combating smuggling and modern slavery, transferring work visa policy from the Home Office, scrapping the Rwanda scheme, and improving asylum decision speeds.
• Green Party: Advocate for humane treatment of immigrants, ending indefinite detention, and ensuring safe and legal routes for refugees.
• Reform UK: Emphasise strict border control, reducing overall immigration numbers, and prioritising immigration policies that favour skilled workers.

What do the News Agents think?

Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis discussed the challenge of immigration on an episode of The News Agents.

Jon Sopel said: “As for stopping the boats, there have been more people arriving into the UK in small boats in the first four months of this year than at any time before.”

Emily Maitlis said that it is a “massive problem for whichever government in Europe is dealing with it, whichever party of the day is dealing with it.”

Referring to the Conservative Party’s Rwanda policy, she said: “You can either deal with the thing in front of you, which is a backlog, an inefficient system, a problem that is growing that needs to be put in some kind of control, that is clearly affecting a lot of people who cite it as one of their key concerns.

"Or you can just do something performative, like telling The Sun that one man has been put on a commercial plane to Rwanda and think you can step back from the whole issue.

" I think that is where things get really hard to understand. Why you would put the money, why you would put the effort, why you would put the sort of legal tussle into something that goes against the grain.”

What role will immigration play in this General Election?

There’s no doubt that immigration will play a key role in voting intentions this general election.

A poll published by YouGov at the start of June found that when asked “which of the following will be the most important issues in deciding who you will vote for at the coming election?”, immigration came in fourth with 26% of the vote, sitting behind the cost of living, health and the economy in general.

Amongst only Conservative voters Immigration leapfrogged the economy and the NHS, becoming the front runner with 45% of the vote.

Unsurprisingly, amongst Reform Party voters, it made up a huge 86% of the vote. For Labour voters, the figure dropped down to 10%.

And concerns about immigration don’t just differ between parties, they also differ between generations. Only 16% of 25-49 year olds said immigration was amongst their ‘top issues’, whilst that figure rises to 44% for the over-65s.

Why is immigration such an important issue for British voters, and what what are our politicians going to do about it?

Those more accepting of immigration will point to its benefits.

Immigrants coming to the UK on skilled work visas, including teachers, doctors and nurses, address the very real labor shortages the UK faces. Entrepreneurs can bring business and economic growth. And ‘low-skilled’ workers in fields such as hospitality and agriculture can also help meet demands.

More workers in the UK can also lead to general economic growth, with more people paying taxes and therefore increased government spending.

Some also argue we need immigrants to offset Britain’s aging population.

Others might say it increases cultural diversity - although, depending where you fall on the political spectrum, this could be viewed as a pro or a con. On that note…

Some voters will point to the disadvantages of immigration.

Those more critical of immigration would note that high immigration puts pressure on public services - most notably the NHS and schools. It adds to demand in an already overcrowded housing market. It’s also blamed for a potential fall in wages for some workers as an increased population makes locals compete for jobs.

The issue of ‘small boats’

Just the word ‘immigration’ often has negative connotations - most likely because it is so closely tied to the repeated chant of “stop the boats!” - a reference to asylum seekers who arrive in Britain by illegally crossing the Channel in small boats.

In 2023, over 29,000 people came to the UK on small boats, down from nearly 46,000 people in the previous year. However, as of 5 June 2024, almost 10,800 people had crossed the Channel, which is more than the numbers for the same period in the previous four years. So small boat crossings are currently increasing.

Both Labour and the Conservatives agree that something has to be done about the issue of small boat crossings.

So, with all this in mind, what have some of the key political parties pledged on asylum and immigration?

There are some things that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer agree on - the need to cut net migration to the UK is one of them. But how to achieve this goal, is not.

What are some of the pledges the Conservatives have made to tackle asylum and immigration?

• Bring in a “binding, legal” annual cap on the number of work and family visas issued, with the cap falling every year and an annual vote in parliament on the visa cap figure.
• Crack down on organised immigration crime, including through the National Crime Agency and intelligence services, to disrupt supply chains and tackle people smugglers.
• Remove illegal immigrants to Rwanda with “a regular rhythm of flights every month, starting this July”.
• End the ability of almost all international students and all care workers to bring dependents.
• Increase the salary threshold for Skilled Worker visas by 48% to £38,700 to stop immigrants from undercutting British workers.
• Legal migrants must undergo a health check before getting a visa to decrease burden on the NHS.
• Return people with no right to be here to their own country by signing further returns deals like the one already agreed with Albania.

You can read the Conservatives full 2024 manifesto here.

What are some of the pledges Labour have made to tackle asylum and immigration?

• Create a new Border Security Command, with hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers, and cross-border police officers, funded by scrapping the Rwanda scheme.
• Seek a new security agreement with the EU to ensure access to real-time intelligence and enable policing teams to lead joint investigations with their European counterparts.
• Hire additional caseworkers to clear the asylum backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.
• Set up a new returns and enforcement unit, with an additional 1,000 staff, to fast-track removals to safe countries for people who do not have the right to stay here.
• Negotiate additional returns arrangements to speed up returns and increase the number of safe countries that failed asylum seekers can swiftly be sent back to.
• Work with international partners to address the humanitarian crises which lead people to flee their homes, and to strengthen support for refugees in their home region.

You can read the Labour party’s full manifesto here.

What are some of the pledges the Liberal Democrats have made to tackle asylum and immigration?

• Invest in officers, training and technology to tackle smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery.
• Transfer policy-making over work visas and overseas students out of the Home Office and into other departments.
• Scrap the Conservatives’ Illegal Migration Act and their Rwanda Scheme, uphold the Refugee convention, and provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees to prevent dangerous Channel crossings.
• Tackle the asylum backlog by establishing a dedicated unit to improve speed of asylum decision-making.
• Introduce a service standard of three months for all but the most complex asylum claims to be processed, and speeding up returns of those without a right to stay.
• Lift the ban on asylum seekers working if they’ve been waiting for a decision for more than three months, allowing them to support themselves and contribute to the economy
• Work with Euopol and the French authorities to stop the smuggling behind dangerous Channel crossings.

You can read the Liberal Democrats full 2024 manifesto here.

What are some of the pledges the Green Party have made to tackle asylum and immigration?

• Make it easier for people to bring their married partners here
• Have safer ways for people to come here who are escaping danger in their own country
• Scrap the Home Office and replace it with a department that works well for immigrants
• Not lock up immigrants unless they are dangerous
• Allow them to have public money where suitable
• Let people who are asking to stay here to be allowed to work here until their case has been decided.

You can read the Green Party’s full 2024 manifesto here.

What are some of the pledges Reform UK have made to tackle asylum and immigration?

• Stop all “non-essential” immigration, and only allow people such as doctors, nurses and “successful business people” to enter the UK.
• Leave the European Court on Human Rights, ban all illegal immigrants from settling in the UK and take all migrants on boats in the English Channel back to France.
• Detain all asylum seekers trying to enter the UK offshore in British overseas territories.
• Deport all foreign nationals who are currently in UK prisons as soon as they are released.
• Stop international students staying in the UK when their study ends, unless they are considered to have “essential skills”.
• Penalise any companies and directors found to hire “cheap, undocumented, illegal labour” from foreign nationals.

You can read Reform UK's full 2024 manifesto here.

What’s the takeaway?

There's a broad range of immigration policies being pledged from party to party, from hardline stances of binding visa caps and flights to Rwanda to more humanitarian pathways for asylum seekers and relaxed work restrictions.

As Britain continues to grapple with the contentious topic, voters will have to weigh each party's proposals against their own values and vision for the country's future, deciding not only which policies sit best with them - but who they think can actually execute them.

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents podcast now.