A “failed free-market experiment”—that’s what the home secretary might call the policy that has led to large numbers of individuals from across the globe arriving in the UK to serve as pub staff, haircut specialists, caregivers for those in need, agricultural workers, and plumbers.
Yvette Cooper is preparing to present the government’s reforms regarding the regulations that decide who can enter the UK legally and for what duration.
Her white paper, titled “Reclaiming Authority Over the Migration Framework,” spans 69 pages and represents a significant opportunity for Labour to address an intricate system where immigration figures have surged beyond what many envisioned.
As Reform closely follows Labour, leveraging public worries over immigration, the outcome for Cooper will be crucial for the government’s standing.
What solution has Labour proposed?
It will be fully revealed on Monday, however, we have extensive knowledge of the proposals being discussed.
It’s anticipated that work visas will have strict time limits for positions not requiring graduate-level expertise.
International students pursuing degrees in the UK might face losing their permission to remain in the country once they complete their studies at university.
Overseas workers will be expected to have a better understanding of English, but reported suggestions of A-level equivalent are wide of the mark.
And companies who repeatedly can’t show efforts to recruit UK-based staff, rather than hunt abroad, might lose their right to sponsor foreign workers to come here at all.
Proposals aimed at altering how judges interpret Article 8 of the Human Rights Act are also expected. This article safeguards individuals’ rights to family life.
But how it’s used sometimes by immigration lawyers to stop deportations has long been a concern of politicians – in 2011, I even remember Theresa May claiming an asylum seeker had been
permitted to remain in the UK due to their cat.
Over a decade later,
Recent instances similar to this have been brought up during Prime Minister’s Questions.
This has prompted the government to reassess how the courts have been understanding individuals’ entitlement to family life. Tomorrow, we will get further insights from the home secretary in our studio, with probable additional comments from the prime minister on Monday.
Certain conservatives and reformists suggest that the sole method to create substantial change is to withdraw entirely from the European Convention on Human Rights, instead of allowing ministers to interfere with judicial matters. As for whether the government’s suggestions will bring about meaningful changes, time will tell.
But the big principle in Cooper’s thinking is that the immigration system should be fundamentally linked to the labour market – helping British workers get the skills to fill vacancies, rather than overseas workers being brought in again and again, to plug the gaps.
The Whitehall connections will be rerouted to attempt this with a fresh strategy through what’s called a ‘quad.’ This involves collaboration among employers, the Department for Work and Pensions, job centers, skill agencies, and the Migration Advisory Committee, which establishes the precise regulations.
The concept involves reducing the economy’s dependence on workers from abroad by encouraging employers to make significant efforts to hire locals instead.
This is the theory. Now for the political perspective: For many years, both major parties generally agreed that immigration had broad benefits as it supported economic growth. Those politicians and citizens expressing worries over the speed and volume of worker inflows were often disregarded.
A cabinet minister states that during the previous period when Labour was in charge, whenever “concerns were voiced, it was often dismissed as being related to racial issues.” Now, there is better recognition that “good, honest citizens have worries regarding immigration; the issue revolves around fairness.”
When it was revealed that 900,000 individuals arrived in the UK in 2023, the prime minister called for an urgent press conference to accuse the Conservatives of conducting a unsuccessful “open-border experiment.”
According to a high-ranking governmental figure, the former administration didn’t aim to “attract 100,000 scientists to reside in central London”; instead, their focus was on addressing economic issues across the country, frequently targeting disadvantaged areas.
Secretaries of state acknowledge that there could consistently be a requirement for professionals from abroad with distinct skills to work in the UK. However, supporters of Sir Keir Starmer argue that he has been advocating this viewpoint for an extended period, dating back to a talk at the CBI event in 2022, where he cautioned businesses that they couldn’t depend on inexpensive labor from other countries during his tenure.
Following that, largely due to the Conservatives strengthening visa regulations before leaving office, the number of individuals entering the UK lawfully has significantly decreased and is anticipated to drop even more this year. However, the political focus on this matter has moved in the opposite direction.
According to certain poll results from earlier this year, issues related to immigration and small boats surpassed the National Health Service (NHS) as the primary concern for voters in 2025.
If fewer workers are arriving as expected, then why is the general public increasingly worried?
Government insiders admit that for numerous members of the public, concerns about legal and illegal immigration are intertwined.
As legal immigration has declined, the number of individuals entering through unauthorized means and seeking asylum has increased conversely.
reaching the peak point since 1979
.
Moreover, two prominent indicators of this situation include unauthorized small vessel crossings and asylum seekers accommodated in hotels across the nation.
A government official confided to me, “the issue lies with the boats, and every detail gets magnified on social media; we’re aware it’s making an impact because it comes back to us at our doorsteps—our party appears to be struggling overall.”
The utilization of hotels not only incurs significant costs – with recent projections estimating it at £15 billion, which is three times more than what the Conservatives anticipated when signing the agreements in 2019 – but can also generate discomfort and animosity among local populations.
A Labor member of parliament whose district includes an asylum hotel confides that a major issue is how constituents associate expenditures for these accommodations with the government cutting funds in other areas.
It’s hard to argue for implementing austerity measures when we’re already allocating substantial funds towards supporting individuals with essentials like winter heating allowances and Personal Independence Payments (welfare benefits). You claim there isn’t enough money for one thing, yet there seems to be funding available for another.
Some people in Downing Street believe that if there hadn’t been an asylum hotel in Runcorn, Labour might have retained their seat during last week’s by-election.
Another glaring reason why immigration has turned into such a contentious political issue is that for many years, consecutive administrations have presented one message to the public while acting differently. During Tony Blair’s tenure, citizens from nations entering the European Union were permitted immediate access to work in the UK.
The authorities had initially projected that approximately 13,000 individuals might relocate; however, in the subsequent years, millions of citizens from Eastern Europe chose the UK as their new residence.
Documents disclosed towards the close of last year unveil
some members of Blair’s team were specifically concerned about that occurring.
David Cameron subsequently pledged time and again to keep the additional individuals relocating to the UK below 100,000. This promise was consistently shattered. The inability of his administration to manage immigration from Europe lay at the heart of the arguments leading up to Brexit.
With deep irony, Boris Johnson won that argument in the referendum, then set up an immigration system that allowed even more people to move to the UK, peaking at 900,000 in 2023. Rishi Sunak then promised to “Stop the Boats” – but they still came.
A No 10 insider says the “public has been gaslit for years – taxpayers have been told it’s happening, but nothing has been changing”.
It’s Cooper and Sir Keir who are now under huge pressure to get the numbers down and keep their vow to “smash the gangs”.
The plans for managing legal migration better on Monday will be followed by a meeting in Albania later in the week, where the focus will be on cracking the illegal trade that smuggles people across Europe.
Ministers hope their plans will make a difference, although screeds of extra immigration law have not exactly improved the situation in recent years.
Creating an intricate system that isn’t functioning properly won’t automatically lead to success. However, in government, it’s undeniable that it’s crucial—not only to repair a flawed system but also to show constituents that action is being taken.
The strategies we will discuss over the coming days have been a long time in development. However, Reform’s significant victory at the polls highlights why Labour must get this right.
As one government official puts it, the public “voted for us to get rid of the Tories; there wasn’t much support for Labour, and they might do the same to us.”
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