Across the United Kingdom, a record number of candidates – more than 4,000 – are campaigning for the July 4 general election. Economic stagnation, a housing crisis, the cost of living, immigration and foreign policy concerns are high on the agenda.

London

Across the United Kingdom, more than 4,000 candidates are campaigning for the upcoming general election. Key issues driving the election include economic stagnation, a housing crisis, the cost of living, immigration, and foreign policy concerns.

Immigration has emerged as a central topic for many British voters. In the past six years, 120,000 people have crossed from France to Britain in small boats. British voters have differing opinions on immigration, influenced by their social values and political affiliations.

Images of migrants arriving and being detained by border forces elicit different reactions. Socially liberal individuals often see desperate refugees seeking safety, while social conservatives perceive a security issue and rule-breaking. This divergence in perspective is profoundly polarizing.

The significance of immigration as an election issue varies among party supporters. Only 3% of Labour voters view it as the biggest issue, compared to 27% of Conservative voters and 68% of Reform UK Party supporters. The Brexit referendum, driven by a public desire to curb migration, has now seen softened voter attitudes due to labour shortages in key sectors.

When asked about specific groups of migrant workers, a considerable portion of the UK public expresses a desire for increased numbers, despite wanting overall migration levels to fall. This contradictory stance is one that political parties are addressing in various ways.

Dover, with its symbolic white cliffs, remains a focal point in the UK migration debate, highlighting the ongoing complexities of immigration and the broader social and political rifts it underscores.



How immigration has become a key UK election issue

Migration. Migration. Migration. This should be the immigration election. Migration matters to British voters. In the last six years, 120,000 people have made the dangerous crossing on small boats from France to Britain. Mention migration in this election, and these are the images that many UK voters will visualise. It's kind of a Rorschach test, these images that we see, very emotive images of migrants arriving, being arrested by the border force. The socially liberal people who favour open borders, what they see there is desperate refugees seeking a place of safety, risking their lives. What social conservatives see is people exploiting a weakness, the border not being secure, rules being broken. In both cases, these are sincerely held, deeply held social values, and they mean that the reaction to those images is just polar opposites. It's literally polarising in terms of you see the same image, see it in very different terms. Dover, with its famous white cliffs, has long been a powerful symbol of the UK's defences against unwelcome arrivals. It's here in the port that the migrants plucked from their small boats in the Channel are brought, and it's those images which have largely driven the debate about migration in the UK. But the emphasis that voters put on migration as an election issue varies significantly depending on party allegiance. Just 3% of Labour Party voters see migration as their single biggest issue. That rises to 27% among those who intend to vote for the Conservative Party. And that rises again to 68% for people who intend to vote for Nigel Farage's Reform UK Party. The public desire to curb migration was a defining factor in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Yet current polling indicates that overall, voter attitudes have actually softened, partly because of post-Brexit labour shortages in key areas. When the UK public are asked, would you like levels of migration to fall, there's a fair proportion which say yes, that they would like migration levels to fall. But then when they are asked about the groups which make up this overall figure, so different groups of migrant workers, such as care workers, or doctors and nurses, or Ukrainians, or sort of all these different groups, most of them, people respond and say that they would like more of these individual groups. So on one level they would like overall migration levels to fall, but they would like the groups which make up that number to increase. That's a contradiction that all the parties are promising to resolve, just in different ways. The White Cliffs are the place where the UK is closest to continental Europe. Those who land here show how far apart the two still are. Paul Brennan, Al Jazeera, Dover.

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