Labour announces new immigration strategy for the UK

The Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, made the announcement to Parliament on 30 July 2024.

Labour plans to retain the strict Immigration Rules introduced under the previous Government

Labour will continue to implement the majority of the Conservative’s ‘five-point plan’ to reduce net-migration. The five-point plan saw the roll-out of stricter Immigration Rules, which were introduced to curb immigration abuses and deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration.

Employers had hoped that Labour would re-set some of the changes or at least adjust the minimum salary thresholds under work routes. Labour is in favour of the strict Immigration Rules and will continue to implement them. This includes:

• ‘Restricting most overseas students from bringing family members to the UK.
  
  
• Restricting the ability of care workers and senior care workers to bring dependants with them and requiring all care providers sponsoring migrants to register with the Care Quality Commission.
  
  
• Increasing the general salary threshold for those arriving on Skilled Worker visas by 48% from £26,200 to £38,700.
  
  
• Abolishing the 20% going rate discount so that employers can no longer pay migrants less than UK workers in shortage occupations.’

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will be strengthened 

Labour had already said that it planned to enlist the MAC in informing immigration policy far more. They intend to do this by sending Home Office staff to the MAC to ensure ‘it is able to work more strategically to forecast future trends, alongside continuing to review and provide independent, evidence-based recommendations on key areas of the immigration system’.

Labour expects the MAC to work with new and pre-existing cross-governmental bodies like Skills England. This cooperative approach is the catalyst to join up immigration, skills and labour market policies. There is mention of a framework to facilitate this, but no detail at this stage on how this will work in practice.

The MAC will be commissioned to conduct a review of the reliance of key sectors on international recruitment

The MAC will focus on IT and engineering to start with. We anticipated that the Health & Care sector and construction sector would have been targeted too, but perhaps this will follow later.

The announcement does not confirm when it will commission the MAC, but we assume this will happen within the next few months. We presume it will involve a call for evidence and external stakeholder engagement, rather than a ‘rapid review’.

Labour will pause the minimum income requirement for 5-year partner visas at £29,000 while they commission the MAC to conduct a review

The minimum income threshold is currently set at £29,000 and was due to increase later this year to £34,500 and again in early 2025 to £38,700. Labour confirms the threshold will remain at £29,000 until the MAC’s review is complete. This is a welcomed development. 

The reasoning for the review and decision to pause the rate was centred on the previous Government’s assertion that there is ‘a need to balance a respect for family life whilst also ensuring the economic wellbeing of the UK is maintained’.

Again, we assume this will happen within the next few months and that it will include a call for evidence and external stakeholder engagement.

There is no change to the Conservative plan to crackdown on abuse in Student and Graduate routes

Labour announced that it plans to continue to implement measures introduced under the Conservative government, following the MAC’s rapid review of the Graduate route. The measures include regulation of the recruitment of international students, scrutinising evidence used to meet financial requirements and reviewing English language assessments.

Labour wants universities to cooperate with the Department of Education to ensure the measures are effective and that the system is protected from exploitation.

Keep in touch with Lewis Silkin for further updates and assistance

We will be monitoring immigration law developments throughout 2024. You can stay updated by following our Labour Policy Impact Hub and our Immigration Law Policy Dashboard. We will publish further information once it becomes available. You can sign up here to receive our updates.

If you have queries on any of the topics raised in this article, please get in touch with our Immigration Team.