General election: Labour and Conservative immigration policies explained
Immigration is one of the key battlegrounds of the 2024 general election for all the parties.
Labour released its strategy for immigration on Sunday as Sir Keir Starmer pledged to slash levels of migration to the UK.
Both parties have promised to cut net migration levels – the number of people coming from overseas minus the number leaving – but neither has said by how much.
Immigration has become one of the main issues of the times in the UK – and not just for the Conservatives, as it would be traditionally, but also for Labour.
Sky News looks at Labour and the Conservatives’ immigration policies.
Illegal immigration
Small boats
Both parties have vowed to “stop the boats”, in reference to the vessels, such as RIBS and dinghies, that cross the English Channel with people aiming to gain entry to the UK without a visa.
2024 has seen the highest number of crossings so far, with 10,448 up to 28 May, while the next highest to that date was in 2022 with 9,326.
Conservatives
The Tory party has increased cooperation with France, with the aim of intercepting small boats in the Channel before they reach UK waters.
It signed an agreement with the EU to tackle smuggler gangs, and signed agreements with different countries to increase removals and act as a deterrent.
The Rwanda policy would act as a major deterrent to asylum seekers coming to the UK in the first place, they have said.
Labour
Labour says it wants to spend money currently being spent on the Rwanda scheme on enforcement activity instead.
One of the first policies it announced during this election campaign was to establish a new Border Security Command to prosecute gangs operating small boat routes.
They would also increase security cooperation with the EU and give police more powers to search suspected people smugglers and monitor their financial accounts.
The party said it wants to negotiate a deal with the EU to return asylum seekers to EU countries.
Rwanda
This is where the Conservatives and Labour differ the most on immigration.
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Conservatives
The Tory party has said its Rwanda policy, which has so far cost £310m, will deter people from coming to the UK by small boat to claim asylum.
In April, the controversial Safety of Rwanda bill became law so those who arrive in the UK illegally from a safe country will be sent to the African nation where they can apply for asylum.
If successful, they could be granted refugee status and be allowed to stay in Rwanda, and if not they could apply to settle in Rwanda on other grounds or seek asylum in another safe third country.
But no asylum seeker would be able to apply to return to the UK.
No flights have yet to take off and Rishi Sunak admitted none would before the general election.
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‘Uncertain times call for bold action’
Labour
Sir Keir Starmer said he would cancel the policy and no flights would take off if they won the election.
Labour’s shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has not ruled out processing asylum seekers in other countries.
Sir Keir said last year he would look at an offshore scheme where migrants are processed in a third country “usually en route to their country of destination”.
Asylum backlog
There is a large backlog of unprocessed asylum claims that built up between 2018 and 2022, but that did start to fall in 2023.
Conservatives
The Conservatives increased the number of caseworkers in the Home Office and introduced processes to streamline processing claims.
They placed asylum seekers on a large barge to stop the sizeable hotel bills building up by housing them there.
The Rwanda policy is aimed at clearing that backlog and ensuring it does not grow.
Labour
The Labour Party would hire 1,000 more caseworkers to create a “Returns and Enforcement Unit” to address the 40% fall in asylum removals since 2010.
They would employ civil servants in the UK and abroad, with overseas officials negotiating returns agreements.
The plans would be financed by savings made by clearing the backlog and ending the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
A fast-track asylum casework system for safe countries would also be introduced so cases are processed “within weeks”.
Asylum seekers were placed on the Bibby Stockholm barge. Pic: PA
Legal immigration
Work migration
The Skilled Worker visa is the largest work migration route in the UK, with people having to be sponsored for a job and meet certain skill and salary requirements.
Conservatives
The rules for who qualifies for the Skilled Worker visa changed in April, with the minimum salary threshold rising substantially to £38,700 or the going rate for that role – whichever is higher.
Social care workers are also no longer allowed to bring dependants on their visa.
A list of jobs for which someone can be sponsored with a reduced minimum salary has been made shorter, and the minimum income to sponsor someone for a spouse/partner visa has risen from £18,600 to £29,000.
Social care workers can no longer bring their dependents to the UK
Labour
Sir Keir Starmer announced on 2 June a plan to bring down net migration by training more UK workers and protect working conditions.
He would pass laws to ban employers who are reliant on recruiting skilled workers from overseas as a default from doing so.
Labour would also bring in laws to train more UK workers so companies would not have to hire from overseas.
The party has said it has “no plans” to change the ban on health and care workers bringing their families to the UK.
Student migration
International students and their families contributed to the largest increase in net migration since 2019.
After graduating, international students can live and work in the UK for two years, or three if they are a PhD graduate, by switching to a Graduate Visa.
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Conservatives
In January 2024, the government banned most students, apart from postgraduate research courses, from bringing their family members with them to the UK.
A review of the Graduate Visa scheme, which allows overseas students to stay in the UK for up to three years after completing a degree, found it should remain as it is key to funding British universities.
The government has not changed the rules since the review was published in May.
Labour
The shadow home secretary has said Labour would retain the ban on family members.
It has not commented on the Graduate Visa review.
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No love for Tories or Labour
What do the other parties say on immigration?
SNP
The SNP called Labour’s plans to cut net migration “cruel” and said neither a Labour or Tory government would put Scotland first and are blaming migrants “for all our problems” instead of Westminster.
They have called for a “fair and human asylum and refugee system where people have the right to work and to contribute to society”.
The Green Party
The Greens want “a world without borders” and believe migration is “not a criminal offence under any circumstances”.
Liberal Democrats
The Lib Dems have accused the Conservatives of breaking the immigration system, and want to invest in officers, training and technology to tackle smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery.
They want to give the power to grant visas to other departments and provide safe and legal routes for refugees.
SEC Commissioner and head of the crypto task force, Hester Peirce, says US financial firms are navigating crypto in a way that’s similar to playing the children’s game “the floor is lava,” but in the dark.
“It is time that we find a way to end this game. We need to turn on the lights and build some walkways over the lava pit,” Peirce said at the SEC “Know Your Custodian” roundtable event on April 25.
The lava is crypto, says Peirce
Peirce explained that SEC registrants are forced to approach crypto-related activities like “the floor is lava,” where the aim is to jump from one piece of furniture to the next without touching the ground, except here, touching crypto directly is the lava.
“A D.C. version of this game is our regulatory approach to crypto assets, and crypto asset custody in particular,” she said.
Peirce said that, much like in the game, firms wanting to engage with crypto must avoid directly holding it due to unclear regulatory rules. “To engage in crypto-related activities, SEC-registrants have had to hop from one poorly illuminated regulatory space to the next, all while ensuring that they never touch any crypto asset,” Peirce said.
Peirce said that investment advisers are often unsure which crypto assets qualify as securities, what entities count as qualified custodians, and whether “exercising staking or voting rights” could trigger custody violations.
“The twist in the regulatory version is that it is largely played in the dark: burning legal lava and no lamps to illuminate the way.”
Peirce also said that a broker or ATS that cannot custody or manage crypto assets will struggle to facilitate trading, making it unlikely for a “robust market” to develop.
Echoing a similar sentiment, SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda said at the event that as more SEC registrants work with crypto assets, it’s essential that they have access to custodial options that meet legal and regulatory requirements.
Uyeda said the agency should consider letting advisers use “state-chartered limited-purpose trust companies” with the authority to hold crypto assets as qualified custodians.
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Meanwhile, the recently sworn-in chair of the SEC, Paul Atkins, said that he expected “huge benefits” from blockchain technology through efficiency, risk mitigation, transparency, and cutting costs.
He reiterated that among his goals at the SEC would be to facilitate “clear regulatory rules of the road” for digital assets, hinting that the agency under former chair Gary Gensler had contributed to market and regulatory uncertainty.
“I look forward to engaging with market participants and working with colleagues in President Trump’s administration and Congress to establish a rational fit-for-purpose framework for crypto assets,” said Atkins.
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Politics
Labour and Reform in battle for Runcorn by-election seat – but disillusionment could be eventual winner
On the banks of the Mersey, Runcorn and Helsby is a more complicated political picture than the apparent Labour heartland that first presents itself.
Yes, there are industrial and manufacturing areas – an old town that’s fallen victim to out-of-town shopping, and an out-of-town shopping centre that’s fallen victim to Amazon.
But there are also more middle-class new town developments, as well as Tory-facing rural swathes.
Space Cafe director Marie Moss says a sense of community has faded
One thing this area does mirror with many across the country, though, is a fed-up electorate with little confidence that politics can work for them.
In the Space Cafe in Runcorn Old Town, its director Marie Moss says many in the region remember a time when a sense of community was more acute.
“People were very proud of their town… and that’s why people get upset and emotional as they remember that,” she says.
It’s this feeling of disenfranchisement and nostalgia-tinged yearning for the past that Reform UK is trading off in its targeting of traditional Labour voters here.
Party leader Nigel Farage features heavily on leaflets in these parts, alongside spikey messaging around migration, law and order, and Labour’s record in government so far.
Runcorn 2024 result
Taxi driver Mike Holland hears frequent worries about that record from those riding in the back of his cab.
A Labour voter for decades, he says locals were “made up” at last year’s election result but have been “astonished” since then, with benefit changes a common topic of concern.
“Getting a taxi is two things, it’s either a luxury or a necessity… the necessity people are the disabled people… and a lot of the old dears are so stressed and worried about their disability allowance and whether they are going to get it or not get it,” he says.
But will that mean straight switchers to Reform UK?
Taxi driver Mike Holland has voted for Labour for decades, but is now looking at the Lib Dems and Greens – or may not vote at all
Mike says he agrees with some of what the party is offering but thinks a lot of people are put off by Mr Farage.
He’s now looking at the Liberal Democrats and Greens, both of whom have put up local politicians as candidates.
Or, Mike says, he may just not vote at all.
It’s in places like Runcorn town that some of the political contradictions within Reform UK reveal themselves more clearly.
Many here say they were brought up being told to never vote Tory.
And yet, Reform, chasing their support, has chosen a former Conservative councillor as its candidate.
It’s no surprise Labour has been trialling attack lines in this campaign, painting Mr Farage’s party as “failed Tories”.
As a response to this, look no further than Reform’s recent nod to the left on industrialisation and public ownership.
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Local elections could re-shape politics
But head 15 minutes south from Runcorn docks, and this by-election campaign changes.
Rural areas like Frodsham and Helsby have, in the past, tended towards the Tories.
The Conservatives, of course, have a candidate in this vote, one who stood in a neighbouring constituency last year.
But Reform is now making a hard play for their supporters in these parts, with a softer message compared to the one being put out in urban areas – an attempt to reassure those anxious about too much political revolution coming to their privet-lined streets.
Labour, meanwhile, is actively trying to mobilise the anti-Farage vote by presenting their candidate – another local councillor – as the only person who can stop Reform.
Makeup artist Nadine Tan is concerned about division and anger in the community
The pitch here is aimed at voters like Frodsham makeup artist Nadine Tan, who are worried about division and anger in the community.
“I think they need to kind of come together and stop trying to divide everyone,” she says.
But like Mike the taxi driver five miles north, disillusionment could be the eventual winner as Nadine says, despite the “thousands of leaflets” through her door, she still thinks “they all say the same thing”.
One factor that doesn’t seem to be swinging too many votes, though, is the insalubrious circumstances in which the area’s former Labour MP left office.
Labour MP Mike Amesbury was convicted of punching a man in the street. Pic: Reuters
Mike Amesbury stepped down after being convicted of repeatedly punching a constituent in a late-night brawl outside a pub.
But across the patch, many praise their ex-MP’s local efforts, while also saying he was “very silly” to have acted in the way he did.
That may be putting it mildly.
But it’s hard to find much more agreement ahead of Thursday’s vote.
A constituency still hungry for change, but unsure as to who can deliver it.
Full list of candidates, Runcorn and Helsby by-election:
Catherine Anne Blaiklock – English Democrats
Dan Clarke – Liberal Party
Chris Copeman – Green Party
Paul Duffy – Liberal Democrats
Peter Ford – Workers Party
Howling Laud Hope – Monster Raving Loony Party
Sean Houlston – Conservatives
Jason Philip Hughes – Volt UK
Alan McKie – Independent
Graham Harry Moore – English Constitution Party
Paul Andrew Murphy – Social Democratic Party
Sarah Pochin – Reform UK
Karen Shore – Labour
John Stevens – Rejoin EU
Michael Williams – Independent
Solana decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Loopscale has temporarily halted its lending markets after suffering an approximately $5.8 million exploit.
On April 26, a hacker siphoned approximately 5.7 million USDC (USDC) and 1200 Solana (SOL) from the lending protocol after taking out a “series of undercollateralized loans”, Loopscale co-founder Mary Gooneratne said in an X post.
The exploit only impacted Loopscale’s USDC and SOL vaults and the losses represent around 12% of Loopscale’s total value locked (TVL), Gooneratne added.
Loopscale is “working to resume repayment functionality as soon as possible to mitigate unforeseen liquidations,” its said in an X post.
“Our team is fully mobilized to investigate, recover funds, and ensure users are protected,” Gooneratne said.
In the first quarter of 2025, hackers stole more than $1.6 billion worth of crypto from exchanges and on-chain smart contracts, blockchain security firm PeckShield said in an April report.
More than 90% of those losses are attributable to a $1.5 billion attack on ByBit, a centralized cryptocurrency exchange, by North Korean hacking outfit Lazarus Group.
Related: Crypto hacks top $1.6B in Q1 2025 — PeckShield
Unique DeFi lending model
Launched on April 10 after a six-month closed beta, Loopscale is a DeFi lending protocol designed to enhance capital efficiency by directly matching lenders and borrowers.
It also supports specialized lending markets, such as “structured credit, receivables financing, and undercollateralized lending,” Loopscale said in an April announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
Loopscale’s order book model distinguishes it from DeFi lending peers such as Aave that aggregate cryptocurrency deposits into liquidity pools.
Loopscale’s main USDC and SOL vaults yield APRs exceeding 5% and 10%, respectively. It also supports lending markets for tokens such as JitoSOL and BONK (BONK) and looping strategies for upwards of 40 different token pairs.
The DeFi protocol has approximately $40 million in TVL and has attracted upwards of 7,000 lenders, according to researcher OurNetwork.
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