Labour's key migration policy in disarray as advisers quibble over whether it will actually reduce record-high immigration numbers
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Labour's key policy to cut migration levels is in doubt today after official advisors voiced scepticism over whether it would work. The Home Office’s independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) said there was ‘no guarantee’ that efforts to boost skills among native workers would reduce the number of foreign workers coming to Britain.
![[An inflatable boat carrying migrants travels across the English Channel in August this year. Labour's key policy to cut migration levels is in doubt today after official advisors voiced scepticism over whether it would work]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/00/93253647-14203675-An_inflatable_boat_carrying_migrants_travels_across_the_English_-a-7_1734480051705.jpg)
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in July she would link migration and labour market policies ‘so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home’. And in October Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said new ‘foundation apprenticeships’ would be a ‘first step to a youth guarantee that will eradicate inactivity and unemployment for our young people - once and for all’.
![[Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured) said in July she would link migration and labour market policies ‘so that immigration is not used as an alternative to training or tackling workforce problems here at home’]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/00/93253649-14203675-Home_Secretary_Yvette_Cooper_pictured_said_in_July_she_would_lin-a-6_1734480051634.jpg)
However, the MAC’s annual report, published today, said that all its analysis ‘suggests there is no guarantee that improving domestic skills would automatically result in lower demand for visas’. It added: ‘The government should not assume increasing the supply of domestic skills will reduce immigration of its own accord.’.
![[A group of migrants at Dover in August 2024. The new report comes after the Office for National Statistics published figures last month showing net migration hit a record 2.2million over the last three years]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/18/00/93253645-14203675-A_group_of_migrants_at_Dover_in_August_2024_The_new_report_comes-a-5_1734480051634.jpg)
Rather than concentrating on improving skill levels in the workforce, ministers may need to make other changes such as tightening the visa system, it suggested. On the government’s apprenticeships plan, the MAC said: ‘Focusing on apprenticeships may paint too simplistic a view of the domestic skill supply.’.
![[Shadow home secretary Chris Philp (pictured) said: ‘By dropping our common-sense changes to the family dependent visa and student visa, Labour will open the floodgates to thousands of dependants coming into this country']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/17/23/93254747-0-image-a-60_1734478876410.jpg)
