The following is a brief summary of the positions of the current four largest parties (Conservatives, Labour, SNP, and the Liberal Democrats) along with highlights offered by other parties. It is not an exhaustive summary of their individual Manifestos, and for the purposes of the article I am focusing on business immigration rather than any policies relating to asylum claims.
The parties are listed in order of the number of seats won at the 2019 election.
The Conservatives
The Conservative Manifesto aims to deliver "sustainable levels of high skilled migration" but also states that, in their opinion, "immigration is too high" and needs to be reduced. In order to achieve this, the following measures are proposed:
- A binding cap on the number of visas which can be issued each year, and this cap will reduce each year
- raising the Skilled Worker salary, and the Family income requirements in line with inflation automatically; currently the rates are not reviewed on an annual basis but were increased earlier this year
- Increased health checks for visa applications, and possible increased health surcharges for migrants who may become a burden on the NHS
- Increased visa fees
The proposed effect of these changes would be to make it harder for businesses to recruit overseas workers, with increased costs and a cap on the number of visas that could be issued. The UK previously operated a monthly cap on the number of new work visas which could be issued each month, but this was removed in 2020.
Labour
Labour's Manifesto also refers to reducing the level of net migration but says the "overall number must be properly controlled and managed". They intend to reform the Points Based System and prevent employers who do not pay staff the minimum wage from being able to sponsor work visas. The Sponsor Guidance already contains a requirement to meet UK employment law, but the Labour Manifesto suggests this would be strengthened.
Labour also intends to link immigration and skills policy, so a Labour Government would target skills initiatives at sectors who regularly use immigration to fill gaps in order to reduce the reliance on overseas workers.
The SNP
The SNP are in favour of devolving power over work visas to the Scottish Government, which could lead to differences in the rules between Scotland and England. Their Manifesto is in favour of a new rural visa pilot scheme as well as a return to, and an expansion of, the Shortage Occupation List which was removed from the Immigration Rules in April 2024.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrat Manifesto states the current rules mean "British employers can't recruit the people they need", and as result they propose:
- replacing the salary threshold with a flexible merit-based system to address the needs in particular sectors
- An expansion of the Youth Mobility Scheme to allow more workers aged between 18 and 35 to come to the UK for up to three years
- removal of the Immigration Skills Charge for NHS and care staff roles
Other parties
The Green party Manifesto does not make any commitments around work visas but does aim to end the "hostile environment" for migrants.
Immigration is a key part of the Reform Manifesto with a commitment to reduce net migration to zero, which would obviously reduce the amount of work visas.
Summary
Some politicians have referred to this election as the "Immigration election" and although it is not a prominent feature of every Manifesto, it is clear that every party wants to introduce changes which would affect business immigration and that the two main parties at the last election (The Conservatives and Labour) both want to reduce net migration, which may mean international recruitment becomes harder in the future.
If you would like to discuss how the Immigration Rules affect your business and recruitment plans, please get in touch.
