General

What is the UK Prime Minister’s new plan for immigration?

By Amer Zaman

on January 22, 2025

Read Time: 7 Minutes

The weight of immigration as a political issue in the UK remains undeniable. For evidence of that, one only needs to look to a certain monthly tracker by public opinion and data company YouGov. The firm’s polling found that – as of late November 2024 – almost seven in 10 (68%) British adults believed immigration into the country had been too high over the past decade.

Now, the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made his latest big intervention on the issue. As the Office for National Statistics (ONS) released figures putting net migration at over 900,000 in the year to June 2023, and 728,000 in the year ending June 2024, Mr Starmer slammed the previous Conservative Government’s record.

The Labour Government sets out that it will overhaul the immigration system

Pinpointing what he believed to be the causes of such historically high immigration numbers, Mr Starmer described it as “a different order of failure” that “happened by design, not accident. Policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration. Brexit was used for that purpose to turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders.”

However, the speech at 10 Downing Street in which the Prime Minister uttered these words, also contained indicators of how his still relatively new administration would revamp the points-based immigration system introduced in the UK after Brexit in 2021.

Mr Starmer said that his Government would:

Publish a White Paper “imminently”, outlining a plan to drive down immigration to the UK
Reform the UK immigration system where ministers “find clear evidence of sectors that are over-reliant on immigration”, amid an ongoing review by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAG)
Ensure that applications for visa routes “come with new expectations on training people here in our country”
“Crack down on any abuse of the visa routes”, with the potential consequence of employers who breach the rules being banned from recruiting overseas labour.

The Prime Minister also used his speech to trumpet progress that he said his Government – which came into power with a 174-seat majority in July’s general election – had already made on immigration.

He stated that:

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had visited the Middle East to finalise a “world-first” new security agreement between the UK and Iraq that he said would “help us smash the people-smuggling gangs” and “secure our borders”
Funding had been confirmed for law enforcement in Iraq, “to tackle this problem upstream… way before it reaches our shores”
Asylum returns had gone up by 53% over the last 12 months, compared to the previous year
A 34% increase in total immigration returns had been recorded over the past year.

The Prime Minister’s comments, of course, are still relatively broad declarations on the state of travel for UK immigration policy for the remainder of the current Parliament. As the situation in the House of Commons presently stands, the next UK general election does not need to take place until August 2029.

Nonetheless, Mr Starmer’s Downing Street speech did provide important clues that experts in UK immigration law and their clients – including both foreign nationals and UK employers – will need to be mindful of.

It comes on the back of what has already been a busy past year for UK immigration policy since the then-Home Secretary under the Rishi Sunak-led Government, James Cleverly, unveiled a landmark plan to cut net migration in December 2023. The Conservative politician announced a package of measures that the Home Office went on to implement this year.

What are the new rules for immigration in the UK in 2024?

Much of the public conversation around UK immigration policy in 2024 centred on Conservative Home Secretary James Cleverly’s “five-point plan” to drive down immigration to the UK.

These announced changes were subsequently put in place through this year, with the Labour Government that took office in July supporting most of the new rules.

The rule changes that have taken effect can be summed up as follows:

Newly arriving social care workers are no longer permitted to bring dependant partners or children with them on their visa to the UK. This took effect on 11^th March 2024.
There has been a big rise in the baseline minimum salary required to be sponsored for a Skilled Worker visa, from £26,200 to £38,700. This was accompanied by a significant increase in the “going rate” minimum salary specific to each job. These increases applied from 4^th April 2024.
The Shortage Occupation List – which set out jobs for which it was permitted to sponsor someone for a Skilled Worker visa at a reduced minimum salary – was shortened and renamed the Immigration Salary List. This took effect on 4^th April 2024.
The minimum income that British citizens normally require to sponsor a spouse/partner visa went up from £18,600 to £29,000, with effect from 11^th April 2024. The Conservative Government had intended to put this up further, to £38,700, by early 2025. However, the Labour administration has decided against this, and has instead commissioned a review expected in June next year.

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAG) undertook a review of the Graduate visa – a two-year unsponsored route for foreign nationals graduating from British universities – to check for possible abuse of the system. This review, published on 14^th May 2024, found no significant abuse, and recommended that the visa category stay open.

How should foreign nationals and UK employers be preparing now?

There is, of course, much that still needs to be firmed up about the specific policies the Labour Government is likely to put in place to manage the UK immigration system. There are, however, some clear indications of the general direction Sir Keir Starmer’s administration intends to take.

If, then, you are reading this as a non-UK national who is considering migrating to the UK, we would advise you to:

Take note of the aforementioned major changes that have already been made to UK immigration policy during 2024, and prepare accordingly. Immigration fees, minimum salary requirements, and entitlements to bring dependants to the UK, have all altered markedly in a short space of time, and may have implications for your plans.
Be mindful of any further changes that the still relatively new UK Government may announce. By engaging with knowledgeable and experienced specialists in UK immigration law such as our professionals at Cranbrook Legal, you can have your case project-managed from start to finish. When you become a client of ours, we can also keep you informed on any changes to the immigration requirements that may impact on you.

Alternatively, you might be an employer in the UK, with an interest in taking on overseas talent during 2025 or beyond. If so, we would advise you to:

Keep an eye on the latest developments in UK immigration policy. Major stated priorities of the new Government include improving the skills of the domestic workforce and enhancing working conditions in the country, as part of its plans to lessen UK employers’ reliance on workers from overseas. It therefore seems likely that increasingly strong links will emerge between immigration and skills policy.
Place the strongest possible emphasis on compliance. This should, of course, be one of the uppermost priorities of a UK employer in any case. The Labour administration has made clear, however, that it will impose harsher penalties on employers that fail to comply with fair employment practices. It seems probable that there will be a greater emphasis on compliance in general during this Parliament. This could involve the Home Office potentially being given greater powers to withdraw sponsor licences and ban employers from recruiting migrants if they breach the rules.

This is a time, then, to be vigilant, whether you are an overseas national or a UK employer. That should include closely monitoring the latest announcements by the Home Office, and consulting authoritative sources like Cranbrook Legal’s online news pages.

How many irregular migrants were there in the UK in 2024?

You are likely to have come across the term “irregular migration”. There is no universally accepted definition of this term; however, it is generally interpreted as a reference to people who enter, stay, or work in a country without obtaining legal permission.

Examples of this include individuals who enter a country without a valid passport or travel document, or who do not enter the country at an official border crossing point.

According to the UK Home Office:

36,949 irregular arrivals to the UK were detected in the year ending September 2024. This was an 18% decrease compared to the previous year.
There were 29,851 arrivals to the country by “small boat” during the year ending September 2024, accounting for 81% of all irregular arrivals. This was a 21% fall compared to the previous year.
In the year ending September 2024, small boat was the method of arrival for 28% of the total number of people claiming asylum in the UK.

It is important to emphasise that not all arrivals to the UK will be detected. The proportion of arrivals detected will vary by method, and the Home Office advises against direct comparisons of recorded detections on different methods of entry.

Negotiate the UK immigration system successfully with our experts’ help

As award-winning specialists in UK immigration law at Cranbrook Legal, we are well-placed to assist you through every stage of your immigration application or asylum claim.

Whether you are an individual migrant or an employer in the UK wishing to hire talent from overseas, we can hold your hand through every stage of your contact with the UK immigration system. To learn more about how we can project-manage your case to a positive conclusion, please feel free to complete and submit our online form to arrange a free consultation. You are also welcome to call us in central London, on 0208 215 0053.