Immigration and the election: Time to choose - Findings from the Ipsos/British

How will the major parties respond? Rishi Sunak’s delivery headache The pre-election tracker findings demonstrate the scale of the political challenge facing Rishi Sunak on immigration ahead of the general election – and why increasing the profile of the issue is much more likely to harm than to help his bid for re-election during the election campaign itself. [...] The Graduate visa18 was introduced in 2021 with the stated aim of allowing the UK to retain the ‘brightest and best’ international students to stay in the UK and contribute economically and socially. [...] The Home Secretary has now asked the Migration Advisory Committee to review the Graduate visa to ‘ensure it works in the best interest of the UK and to ensure steps are being taken to prevent abuse’, with the MAC asked to report back in May this year20. [...] The review refers to concerns that graduates are not entering skilled jobs, even though they are not required to under the visa’s terms.21 The public is likely to be largely unaware of the government’s concern about the visa and of the forthcoming review. [...] Voices on the right of the party are already rehearsing their arguments, that the party would have won had it taken the difficult decisions to drastically cut net migration, or pulled out of the ECHR in order to enact the Rwanda plan and stop the boats.