Explainer | UK election 2024: why immigration is a major issue
- UK voters go to the polls on July 4, with predictions of a record win for the opposition Labour Party
- Immigration is a highly contentious issue this election with net migration at 685,000 in 2023
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is promising to cut immigration levels if his Conservative Party wins next month’s election, making the issue one of the major battlegrounds of the upcoming vote.
Sunak hopes the issue will distinguish his party from the opposition Labour Party, which is currently ahead by more than 20 points in opinion polls.
The immigration issue
Immigration has long been a major political question in Britain, with voters expressing concern that large influxes put excess pressure on housing, education and the state-run National Health Service, as well as damaging social cohesion.
In 2010, Conservative then-prime minister David Cameron pledged to bring net migration back to tens of thousands a year, a target he never came close to reaching.
Ending the free movement of people into Britain from other European countries was a major factor that led to the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, with those championing Brexit promising it would help bring back control of Britain’s borders.
However, net migration, which reached 329,000 in 2015, has continued to rise.
