Amid the furore, where does Labour stand?

With the next general election less than two years away and the Labour party well ahead in the polls, lawyers are considering how a shift in the government may impact their practice area. Unlike Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, the party under Sir Keir Starmer has been hesitant about taking strong positions on immigration policy due to the often divisive issues at hand, such as labour shortages, a record-breaking Home Office processing backlog of asylum-seeker applications and an uptick in international students across the country. So what can we expect if Labour wins next time?

Migrant workers

In the converging post-Brexit environment and emergence from the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK has seen significant personnel shortages in critical sectors, ranging from doctors and teachers to HGV drivers and agricultural workers. Throughout the past three years, global travel restrictions contributed to deterring migration by those who may otherwise have considered relocation. Immigration statistics show that economic migration has nearly doubled compared to pre-pandemic numbers. Nevertheless, the need for more EU workers and growing global competition for talent continue to challenge British businesses.

In November 2022, Starmer spoke before the Confederation of British Industry to outline the Labour party’s approach to economic migration. In this speech, the Labour leader identified migration as ‘part of our national story’ but said the British economy’s immigration dependency must end. He also said changes to the points-based immigration system would require new conditions for British businesses, such as improved pay, investment in technology and a greater emphasis on training. Following the speech, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper noted that: ‘Labour supports a points-based system for immigration and we will link it to improving training and employment standards, so our country benefits from international talent and from serious plans to boost skills and increase economic activity in the UK.’

These promises from the frontbench are close to those of the 2019 Labour party manifesto. However, the Fabian Society published a pamphlet in April 2022 by chief Labour party migration adviser and Durham University Law School professor of law and government, Thom Brooks, on a fair immigration plan for a future Labour government. The pamphlet includes proposals such as lower immigration fees for Skilled Worker visas and a regional approach to encourage migration outside London and south-east England. These policy proposals could provide insight into the direction of the 2024 Labour party manifesto should stakeholders concur.

Family migration

Immigration of family members of British citizens and settled persons, including spouses and civil partners, marks one of the more complex categories in the Immigration Rules. Since 2012, family-based immigration applications have entailed strict financial conditions known as the Minimum Income Requirement (MIR) to prevent migrants from becoming a ‘burden on the state’, as the Home Office put it in its request to the Migration Advisory Committee in 2011. These requirements prevent families who fail to meet the MIR from settling together in the UK. Additionally, immigrant spouses and children of British citizens and settled persons cannot generally access public funds and benefits under ‘no recourse to public funds’ (NRPF) conditions, unless they switch from a five-year route to permanent residence to a 10-year route.

The Labour party has advanced a more sympathetic approach to family migration. During the Covid-19 pandemic and aftermath, the work and pensions committee, chaired by Labour MP Stephen Timms, called on the government to change NRPF policies due to the impact on children in poverty. However, a policy proposal to remove the MIR, as included in a leaked version of Labour’s 2017 manifesto, has yet to come to fruition.

Asylum seekers

The Labour party has spoken out against the Rwanda asylum plan currently making its way through the courts and the recently announced Illegal Migration Bill. In her

2022 Labour party conference speech, Cooper promised that the party would cancel the ‘deeply damaging, extortionately expensive, unworkable and unethical Rwanda plan’ and redirect funding towards a cross-border police unit to tackle criminal trafficking gangs. Labour politicians and activists have called on the Conservative government to introduce more ‘safe and legal’ routes for those seeking protection, such as those available for Ukrainians and Afghans, and to consider creating a mechanism by which individuals can apply for asylum from abroad. In response to the Illegal Migration Bill, the Labour party outlined its plan to stop small boat crossings including:

• cracking down on smuggler gangs through the creation of a new cross-border police unit;
• clearing the asylum backlog and ending the use of hotel accommodation through the implementation of fast-track asylum processing and safe country returns;
• signing a new cooperation agreement with France and other partner countries on family reunions and returns;
• reforming safe and legal routes for refugees; and
• tackling humanitarian crises at source by helping refugees in their region.

All parties see the collapse of the UK asylum system as an intractable problem, and concrete opposition proposals require further detail and thought. For example, Professor Brooks suggests that Labour reduces the waiting time for asylum seekers with pending applications to be given the right to work from 12 to six months to minimise asylum support funding. Though a productive solution, the proposal merely scrapes the tip of the iceberg of problems with the asylum system.

As part of its top policy priority to ‘stop the boats’, the government introduced the Illegal Migration Bill on 7 March. The bill seeks to ‘prevent and deter unlawful migration, and in particular migration by unsafe and illegal routes, by requiring the removal from the United Kingdom of certain persons who enter or arrive in the United Kingdom in breach of immigration control.’

These provisions would deem most asylum seekers inadmissible and, therefore, ineligible for refugee status. The Labour party has pushed back against the Bill, noting that it ‘fails on return agreements’ and ‘thousands of people will be put in indefinite taxpayer funded accommodation’. Nevertheless, the government has seemingly fast-tracked the Illegal Migration Bill with a second reading taking place at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the asylum backlog now stands at over 160,000 applicants awaiting an initial decision – what this figure will look like by the next general election remains to be seen.

Conclusion

The next two years will prove pivotal as parties solidify their positions on migration, and for immigration law practitioners and campaign groups lobbying for migrant-friendly policies. Ultimately, the Labour party must identify divergences from the Conservatives and other political parties and convince the public that a Labour government would prove more decisive on migration issues.

Phoebe Warren is a paralegal in the Professional Support Lawyers Team at Laura Devine Immigration, London