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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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.
Migrants convicted of sex offences in the UK or overseas will be unable to claim asylum under government plans to change the law to improve border security.
The Home Office announcement means foreign nationals who are added to the sex offenders register will forfeit their rights to protection under the Refugee Convention.
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As part of the 1951 UN treaty, countries are allowed to refuse asylum to terrorists, war criminals and individuals convicted of a “particularly serious crime” – which is currently defined in UK law as an offence carrying a sentence of 12 months or more.
The government now plans to extend that definition to include all individuals added to the Sex Offenders’ Register, regardless of the length of sentence, in an amendment to the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is currently going through parliament. It’s understood they also hope to include those convicted of equivalent crimes overseas.
Those affected will still be able to appeal their removal from the UK in the courts under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
More than 10,000 people have now been detected crossing the Channel. Pic: PA
It is unclear how many asylum seekers will be affected, as the government has been unable to provide any projections or past data on the number of asylum seekers added to the Sex Offenders’ Register.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK.
“We are strengthening the law to ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously.”
Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Minister Jess Philips said: “We are determined to achieve our mission of halving violence against women and girls in a decade.
“That’s exactly why we are taking action to ensure there are robust safeguards across the system, including by clamping down on foreign criminals who commit heinous crimes like sex offences.”
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The Home Office would like voters to see this as a substantial change. But that’s hard to demonstrate without providing any indication of the scale of the problem it seeks to solve.
Clearly, the government does not want to fan the flames of resentment towards asylum seekers by implying large numbers have been committing sex crimes.
But amid rising voter frustration about the government’s grip on the issue, and under pressure from Reform – this measure is about signalling it is prepared to take tough action.
Conservatives: ‘Too little, too late’
The Conservatives claim Labour are engaged in “pre-election posturing”.
Chris Philp MP, the shadow home secretary, said: “This is too little, too late from a Labour government that has scrapped our deterrent and overseen the worst year ever for small boat crossings – with a record 10,000 people crossing this year already.
“Foreign criminals pose a danger to British citizens and must be removed, but so often this is frustrated by spurious legal claims based on human rights claims, not asylum claims.”
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Has Labour tackled migration?
The Home Office has also announced plans to introduce a 24-week target for appeal hearings (known as “first-tier tribunals”) to be held for rejected asylum seekers living in taxpayer-supported accommodation, or for foreign national offenders.
The current average wait is 50 weeks. The idea is to cut the asylum backlog and save taxpayers money – Labour have committed to end the use of asylum hotels by the end of this parliament.
It’s unclear how exactly this will be achieved, although a number of additional court days have already been announced.
The government also plans to crack down on fake immigration lawyers who advise migrants on how to lodge fraudulent asylum claims, with the Immigration Advice Authority given new powers to issue fines of up to £15,000.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has called on government officials to address questions related to US President Donald Trump’s memecoin and his media company.
In an April 25 letter to Jamieson Greer, acting director of the US Office of Government Ethics (OGE), Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff requested that officials address concerns about Trump’s memecoin after the president announced a dinner and White House tour for some of the individuals who held the most TRUMP tokens. The two senators requested that Greer provide information on safeguards and guidelines related to whether foreign actors and others could buy political influence with the president, potentially impacting his policy positions and federal pardons.
“President Trump’s announcement promises exclusive access to the presidency in exchange for significant investment in one of the President’s business ventures,” wrote the two senators.
“In promising such access, this proposition may implicate several federal ethics laws and constitutional prohibitions, including the federal bribery statute and emoluments clauses of the US Constitution. It also raises the troubling prospect that foreign actors are using the memecoin as a vector to buy influence with President Trump and his associates without needing to disclose their identities publicly.”
The letter was sent the same day Warren reportedly expressed similar concerns about Trump’s potential conflicts of interest with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to an April 25 Reuters report, the Massachusetts senator urged SEC Chair Paul Atkins to ensure that oversight of Trump’s media company was “free from undue political interference and influence from the President and his administration.”
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Though ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, Warren does not have the authority to direct Congress’s agenda with Democrats in the minority. Two Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives have already called for Trump’s impeachment over his memecoin dinner.
Warren added:
“The American people deserve the unwavering assurance that access to the presidency is not being offered for sale to the highest bidder in exchange for the President’s own financial gain.”
At the time of publication, it was unclear who among the top TRUMP memecoin holders would attend the dinner, scheduled to be held on May 22 at Trump’s golf club in Washington, DC. Speculation and analysis of users suggested that Trump supporters, including Tron founder Justin Sun, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and others, could attend, though none had been confirmed as of April 28.
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Crypto users betting on the outcome of the snap election to determine the next Prime Minister of Canada appear to be favoring a Liberal Party victory as residents head to cast their votes.
As of April 28, cryptocurrency betting platform Polymarket gave current Canadian Prime Minister and Liberal Party candidate Mark Carney a 79% chance of defeating Conservative Party candidate Pierre Poilievre in the race for the country’s next PM. Data from the platform showed users had poured more than $75 million into bets surrounding the race, predicting a Poilievre or Carney victory.
The odds suggested by the platform, as well as those from many polls, show a nearly complete reversal of fortunes between the two candidates after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned in January. Trudeau and, by association, many in the Liberal Party, faced criticism over the handling of Canada’s housing crisis and questions about how he would face US President Donald Trump’s then-proposed tariffs.
Following Trudeau’s resignation, Trump stepped up rhetoric disparaging Canada, repeatedly referring to the country as the US’s “51st state” and Trudeau as its “governor.” The US President also imposed a 25% tariff on goods imported from Canada in March. The policies seem to have led to increasing anti-Trump sentiment in Canada, with many residents booing the US national anthem at hockey games and making comparisons between the president and Poilievre.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.
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