This week British Future launched a new report, Time to get it right: Finding consensus on Britain’s future immigration policy.
The report includes new ICM opinion polling showing public attitudes to different flows of immigration, together with analysis of the 2017 General Election and what it means for the post-Brexit immigration debate. The poll finds a striking degree of public consensus, among both Leave/Remain and Conservative/Labour voters, for a system that differentiates between higher- and lower-skilled immigration. The report sets out a proposal for a new system for EU immigration to the UK which remains open to skilled migration while increasing control of low-skilled migration through annual quotas.
Media coverage of the report stretched across referendum and political divides, with positive reports in The Sun, The Guardian and Huffington Post. Sunder Katwala wrote on ConservativeHome about the extent of consensus among the public on immigration while George Eaton in the New Statesman drew on the findings to discuss how voters have turned against the net migration target.
Here are some of the responses to the report on social media, with commentators coming from quite different positions:
V thoughtful by @britishfuture. Chapter 1 shows how PM wrong to play culture wars & thus abandon ‘One Nation’ stance https://t.co/SieIerJcAT
— Ryan Shorthouse (@RyanShorthouse) September 4, 2017
Public lost faith in the target years ago, and the excellent new @britishfuture confirms they support imm whenever econ case clear https://t.co/cj9HbN8BHT
— Rob Ford (@robfordmancs) September 4, 2017
New British Future report contains sensible, workable social integration policies driven at the local level https://t.co/zCe5rxpqXK
— Nick Plumb (@NicholasPlumb) September 4, 2017
.@BritishFuture report shows public support separate targets for different types of immigration. Bright Blue has been calling for this also! pic.twitter.com/ylWRJYc5fm
— Laura Round (@LauraRound) September 4, 2017
Interesting poll results @britishfuture. 64% of those surveyed support reduction in low-skilled migration from EU https://t.co/UgzEjBYx78 pic.twitter.com/Ze2ehlyOBh
— Migration Watch UK (@MigrationWatch) September 4, 2017
Report by @britishfuture: 63% support post-Brexit system of low-skilled immigration thru cap, with skilled migrants coming to UK as before
— FDF CorporateAffairs (@FDFCorpAffairs) September 4, 2017
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