Public dissatisfaction with the Government’s handling of immigration is at its highest level since before the EU referendum, according to new data from the Immigration Attitudes Tracker from Ipsos and British Future, which has tracked public attitudes to immigration since 2015. The findings are set out in a new report, Immigration and the election: Time to choose, published by British Future. Some 69% of the public say they are dissatisfied with the way the current government is dealing with immigration and just 9% are satisfied. Only 16% of current Conservative supporters – and just 8% o ..read more

As the government’s Safety of Rwanda Bill returns to the House of Commons on Monday 18 March, a new poll for British Future finds up to three quarters of the public support amendments made to the Bill by the House of Lords. The research by Focaldata finds majority public support for almost all of the amendments proposed by the Lords, with less than 20% of the public disagreeing with the Lords on most of the amendments. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had sparked controversy by issuing a warning to the House of Lords against frustrating the “will of the people” by amending or delaying the Safety of ..read more

The Asylum Welcome Design Lab is an initiative commissioned by the Greater London Authority and created in partnership with British Future and refugee-led charity REAP. It aims to help local authorities develop new approaches to supporting people seeking asylum, responding to changing needs and creating opportunities for social connection. A new toolkit for local authorities supporting refugees and people seeking asylum, created by the Design Lab, is published on the GLA website today. The toolkit provides case study examples of how local authorities are taking a proactive response to asylum i ..read more

The next parliament of the UK will be the most diverse ever, according to new projections from British Future based on current candidate selections. Yet it also finds that an opportunity to bring ethnic minority and gender representation closer to levels that reflect our society may be missed, as the rate of selections has stalled. With the major parties having now selected around nine-tenths of their candidates for winnable target constituencies and early retirement seats, our projection finds that the number of ethnic minority MPs is set to increase from 65 to at least 75, and as many as 83 ..read more

The British public values the UK’s relationship with the European Union more highly than that with the US or Commonwealth nations, and a majority would like a closer relationship with the EU, according to new research. Research conducted by British Future for the report ‘Beyond Brexit: Public perspectives on the future UK-EU relationship,’ finds that 52% of the public would like the UK to have a closer relationship with the EU. Just 12% said that they would prefer a more distant relationship and 27% would keep the status quo. Asked which relationship was most important for peace, stability and ..read more

Home Secretary James Cleverly has introduced a series of new measures designed to reduce net migration, targeting those who come to the UK to work or join their family. These include: Increasing the minimum salary needed for skilled overseas workers from £26,200 to £38,700. Replacing the Shortage Occupation List with a new Immigration Salary List, to be reviewed by the Migration Advisory Committee to reduce the number of occupations on the list. The 20% salary discount for shortage occupation will be ended. Restricting overseas care workers from bringing their dependants to the UK. Restrictin ..read more

New immigration figures this week will likely show a fall from recent record levels of net migration. Debate about the right level of migration to Britain often failed to note that high numbers were largely driven by deliberate policy choices of the government: to recruit more healthcare workers and care staff to fill vacancies; to support our thriving higher education sector to attract more international students; and to offer a place of safety for tens of thousands of civilians fleeing the war in Ukraine. Net migration will probably fall because this last group prompted a large spike in numb ..read more

The UK Supreme Court today ruled unanimously that the government’s Rwanda scheme, to deport UK asylum seekers to the African country to have their claims heard under the Rwandan system, was not lawful. Citing detailed evidence submitted by UNHCR, which supervises the application of the UN Refugee Convention, Lord Reed, president of the Supreme Court, said there was a “real risk” that asylum seekers could be sent back from Rwanda to countries they had fled from. Despite the judgement from the UK’s highest court, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said that the UK is already negotiating a new treaty ..read more

This week sees Round Three of the government’s court battle over its Rwanda policy. The government is confident that it can overturn its defeat in the Court of Appeal – though it had been equally confident of winning that case too, where it lost on a 2:1 verdict. Once this legal hold-up is out of the way, they argue, the Rwanda scheme can get to work in stopping the boats, as pledged by the Prime Minister. Keir Starmer confirmed on Sunday that Labour will scrap the Rwanda scheme, regardless of the court’s decision. In response, government ministers have asked whether Labour would still drop th ..read more

Immigration, diversity and multiculturalism became central themes of the Conservative conference – as leading government ministers offered starkly contrasting views of the state of the nation.  Home Secretary Suella Braverman extended her warning about how what she now called a “hurricane” of immigration could combine with the “toxic failures” of multiculturalism to present an existential threat to British democracy and society. Yet Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke very differently in declaring that “this United Kingdom is also the most successful multi-ethnic democracy on earth” while Tr ..read more