Tuesday 11 June 2024

In their manifesto for the upcoming General Election published on Monday 10 June 2024, the Liberal Democrats critique that ‘the immigration system has been broken by the Conservatives’. They propose a series of reforms to create a fair and effective system that emphasises dignity and respect, including the following key policies:

• end the Hostile Environment – redirect resources to combat smuggling, trafficking and modern slavery;
• policy reallocation – move work and student route policymaking out of the Home Office;
• abolish key Conservative asylum policies – scrap the Illegal Migration Act and Rwanda scheme, uphold the Refugee Convention and create safe legal routes for refugees;
• reform of the asylum system – establish a unit for asylum decisions with a three-month processing goal and allow asylum seekers to work if their cases take longer; and
• international cooperation – work with Europol and French authorities to combat smuggling and trafficking.

Points-based immigration system

The Liberal Democrats propose replacing the Conservatives’ ‘arbitrary’ salary threshold with a more flexible merit-based system for sponsored workers tailored to sector needs. They aim to support healthcare workers by exempting NHS and care staff from the Immigration Skills Charge and allowing care workers to bring their families to the UK. Additionally, they plan to expand the Youth Mobility Scheme by negotiating EU deals on a reciprocal basis, increasing the age limit from 30 to 35, abolishing application fees, and extending the length of permission under this scheme from two to three years.

Family route and EU citizens

The party seeks to lower income thresholds for family immigration applications to support family reunification. For EU citizens, they propose granting automatic Settled Status to those with Pre-Settled Status and providing physical proof of residency. They also plan to reduce the fee for registering a child as a British citizen to the administration cost.

Simplification and oversight of the legal system

To make the immigration process more transparent and fairer, the Liberal Democrats aim to simplify the Immigration Rules and increase parliamentary scrutiny of future changes. They intend to involve devolved administrations in developing work and student route policies. Strengthening oversight, they plan to enhance the powers of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration. The Liberal Democrats also plan to expand access to immigration legal advice by making the legal aid system simpler, fairer, and more generous.

Addressing past injustices

The manifesto includes a commitment to fully implement the Windrush Lessons Learned Review and make the compensation scheme independent of the Home Office. They also propose repealing the Conservatives’ Right to Rent policy, which requires landlords to check tenants’ immigration status, and establishing a firewall to prevent public agencies from sharing personal information with the Home Office for immigration enforcement. A Liberal Democrat-led government would also repeal the immigration exemption in the Data Protection Act.

Humane management of the asylum system and immigration detention

Finally, the Liberal Democrats aim to provide safe and legal routes to sanctuary for refugees by expanding the UK Resettlement Scheme, creating humanitarian travel permits, resettling unaccompanied child refugees, and reuniting families. They propose cancelling the Rwanda scheme and investing the savings in clearing the asylum backlog.

To improve the treatment of asylum seekers, the party proposes ending the detention of children for immigration purposes and reducing detention for adults to an absolute last resort with a 28-day time limit. They also aim to increase the ‘move-on’ period for new refugees to 60 days, providing them with vital time to prepare for life in the UK.

Analysis

The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto for the upcoming General Election underpins the principles of a fair and effective immigration system. Without the pressures on the Conservative and Labour parties to temper policies to realistically have a shot at leading a majority government, Liberal Democrat members have approved a manifesto that offers considered proposals in the areas of work, study and family migration, as well as reform of the asylum system and administrative recommendations.

However, these manifesto proposals could prove practically challenging to achieve based on the current state of the immigration system:

• on policy reallocation – decentralisation of work and student route policymaking from the Home Office could create challenges in coordination and consistency across different government departments;
• on reform of the asylum system – according to the Migration Observatory’s most recent data from 2022, asylum applications took around 21 months to receive an initial decision in the UK. Based on these processing times, a three-month processing time is ambitious and would require significant personnel investment; and
• on international cooperation – these policies require strong diplomatic relations, coordination mechanisms and goodwill, some of which have degraded since the UK’s exit from the EU.

On the point of the EU, in sharp contrast to their positions in 2019, this manifesto provides minimal reference to reintegration with the European Union. In the most recent General Election, the Liberal Democrats positioned themselves as the only major political party focused on rejoining the EU as a primary policy. Whilst the Liberal Democrats now aim to ‘forge a new partnership build on cooperation, not confrontation’ and a long-term goal to rejoin the Single Market, promises of belief in the importance of free movement no longer take top billing.

LDI Solicitor Sam Ingham notes:

‘Whilst these proposals are of course highly unlikely to be enacted by the next government, they are nonetheless a welcome addition to the political discourse on immigration offered by the two main parties with their arbitrary and simplistic focus on reducing immigration numbers and overly negative rhetoric.

This manifesto clearly recognises the need for a more nuanced, fair and evidence-based approach to immigration policy based on the varied, complex and ever-changing needs of the UK and its residents and demonstrates a sensible appreciation that it is not possible to resolve the UK’s skills shortages with a quick overnight fix.’

This manifesto’s level of detail and avoidance of solely focusing on hot topics such as the Rwanda scheme and net migration is a balanced and welcome change amidst what some refer to as ‘the immigration election.’

Get in touch

To learn more about upcoming changes to UK immigration law, please refer to our website, contact your assigned LDI lawyer, or email enquiries@lauradevine.com.