Abandoning Rwanda plan and reducing net migration to be Labour’s immigration policy

Today’s change of government following Labour’s general election victory will see significant changes to immigration and asylum law and policy. Keir Starmer was sworn in as Prime Minister this morning and, as expected, appointed Yvette Cooper as Home Secretary.

One of the major and immediate changes expected once the new government takes office is the abandonment of the Conservative policy of relocating asylum seekers to Rwanda, which would deter small boats from crossing the English Channel.

While former prime minister Rishi Sunak promised the first flight to Rwanda would depart at the end of this month, new prime minister Keir Starmer told Sky News in May: “There will be no scheduled flights or take-offs after the general election if Labour wins this general election. No flights, no scheme for Rwanda, it’s a gimmick, it’s very expensive, it won’t work.”

Yvette Cooper told the Commons in January that the Rwanda policy would not fix the asylum system that had been broken by the Conservatives. She said the policy was too small and too impractical to act as a deterrent and stop the boats. Cooper confirmed to Sky News in April that Labour would not implement the Rwanda scheme.

“We’re not going to do the Rwanda program because every time you do it, you have to write more checks… Our plan is not to do the Rwanda program, instead we’re going to put the money into investing in our border security and preventing boats from coming in,” Cooper said.

The Telegraph reported this evening that a Labour insider confirmed that Rwanda policy is now effectively “dead” and said: “If Rishi Sunak thought Rwanda would work, he wouldn’t have called an election. It was a sham. By calling an election, Sunak admitted that fact.”

The Independent newspaper has more information today on what will happen to the Rwanda plan if Labour wins.

Labour has said its successor in Rwanda policy will be the creation of a new Border Security Command to tackle organised, criminal gangs behind small boats. The new Border Security Command will have “hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers”, according to Labour’s election manifesto. Yvette Cooper said tonight that creating the new Command was one of her first two priorities after becoming Home Secretary.

Keir Starmer set out Labour’s broad policy on asylum in a major speech in Dover on 10 May. You can read key extracts from the speech here on EIN. Starmer said he favoured a rules-based asylum system that processed claims quickly and humanely, but that also detained and removed people who had no right to be in the UK.

Starmer continued: “We need to restore integrity and principle to our asylum system. We need to clear the backlog so we can return people quickly. That is the way, the only way, to real deterrence. That is why we will hire hundreds of new social workers for the Home Office, and we will do it immediately. We will create a new rapid returns and enforcement unit that will ensure the courts can deal with claims quickly, and we will save the taxpayer billions.”

On the same day that Starmer made his Dover speech, an article was published on the Labour Party website summarising its approach to immigration.

The article said Labour wanted an immigration system that was “properly controlled and managed” and wanted to reduce net migration from the record levels seen over the past few years under the Conservative government.

Labour has criticised the Conservatives for issuing too many visas and choosing more migration over improving skills and working conditions in the UK.

“Labor’s immigration policy will reduce reliance on foreign workers, address domestic skills shortages and ensure that hard work is rewarded with appropriate pay and conditions. Labor supports a points-based immigration system that works for workers and businesses,” the article said.

The article summarises Labour Party policy on labour immigration in three short points as follows:

“1) Strengthen the skills of the British people by working together across Whitehall systems to identify and address skills gaps – this will enable us to start training on the job, rather than looking abroad to plug skills gaps, and end sectors facing skills shortages without a plan to address them.
“2) Reform the points-based immigration system, reducing migration. We will direct the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to work with other government agencies to ensure a concerted effort to deliver the skills needed for growth, including in priority sectors for our industrial strategy. We will work to reduce the need for international recruitment, increase per capita growth and ensure rapid responses to changes in the labour market.
“3) New powers to ban foreign hiring for employers and recruitment agencies that break labour laws. An end to exploitation in the workplace, where migration is used as a way to undermine the working conditions of workers here.”

In June, the Guardian reported that the Labour government intended to launch an inquiry into the exploitation of migrant workers in the social care sector.

Yvette Cooper said: “The Government is turning a blind eye to the widespread exploitation of migrant workers, putting vulnerable people at risk and undermining our immigration system and standards. Stories of people being unfairly charged thousands of pounds by agencies and employers profiting from overseas recruitment are an absolute disgrace. A full investigation into these claims must be carried out to ensure standards are maintained and exploitative employers are prosecuted.”

Relatively short extracts from Labour’s election manifesto on immigration and asylum can be read here on EIN. In relation to business immigration, the manifesto emphasises that “the days of a sector that has been endlessly suffering on immigration shortage lists, with no action to retrain workers, will come to an end” under Labour.