By Djillali Laribi Date: January 20,2025
When investigating the current political situation of the UK at this current point in time, is like trying to investigate people, it is near impossible as it is
ever-changing and continues to evolve day by day. One thing that is evident is
that problems and desperation have intensified in the UK with examples
including the financial issues with Thames Water, overcrowding in prisons.
Public sector pay, financial crisis in universities, NHS funding lacking and local
councils falling.
Immigration
Rates of immigration have evidently decreased, with statistics showing that
728,000 people have come to the UK in the year to June 2024 compared to
the 906,000 in 2023.
The majority of immigration in the UK is rooted from non-EU nationals,
specifically 1 mln, and around 10% of UK nationals were EU nationals with
another 5% being British nationals. The majority of immigration were student
visas.
Evident factors/changes in the immigration system in the UK:
-Entry requirements for skilled workwear are getting more rigid and tough.
Visas in the UK work on a point system and in recent years the criteria for
these visas has become tougher.
-Most asylum cases are denied, when asylum has been granted, financial
support is provided as well as housing. Out of 27,814, 19,159 cases of asylum
are rejected.
-Residency is the most common reason citizenship is granted.
Labour manifesto
Labour has promised 12 key policies to
be abided.
1-Wealth creation: Labour is promoting
itself as the party that encourages wealth
creation, with the aim to improve
development and living quality of working
people. Labour has stated that it will
promote more investment, something that
it has been lacking on since 2016.
2-Plans to raise £8bln-Labour has
planned to set up plans to raise revenues
to £8bln. This will lead to the clamping
down of tax avoidance, adding VAT to private schools and introducing a
reduction on tax for big energy.
3-Private school fees tax to pay for state school teachers.Labour wants to add
20% VAT to private school fees.
4-Building 300,000 homes a year. Labour plans to build 1.5 mln new homes in
the next 5 years.
5-a 2030 ban on petrol and diesel car sales.
6-A new order and security command in the UK in which labour intends to
scrap the Rwanda plan and instead invest £75mln to a new border plan and
security command.
7-£24 bln for green initiatives.
8-An ‘absolute’ commitment to nuclear and NATO.
9-40,000 more NHS appointments and operations.
10-’Home-first’ care.
11-Plan to reduce backlog of rape cases;
12-Tackle ticket-touts.
The US elect-president effect on UK and EU politics
Donald Trump’s second term kicks off four years which could boost US-UK
relations to a pinnacle. As of recently, there has been numerous tensions
between Starmer and the US president, with both disagreeing on a number of
points in each’s system. Now its on Trump’s hands to somehow mitigate a
better, smoother relationship between the two superpowers. Tariffs could
increase for the UK as Trump has hinted at increasing tariffs for numerous
countries after the US has been getting ‘ripped off for years’.
Furthermore, as evident during the election campaign, Starmer sent support to
Kamala Harris which could further fuel the already present war of words
between the superpowers. Another contradiction that the two superpowers
may go through is the defense spending in Ukraine. Trump has argued that
the US spends too much on supporting Ukraine than other NATO members.
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