How things go for the economically insecure over the next three years will decide the outcome of the next election.

With our funding, London’s boroughs have delivered huge changes to make our streets safer, greener, healthier and more enjoyable for pedestrians and cyclists of all ages. This week, we announced a further £95m investment. See what’s been achieved since 2022 ⬇️🧵

"Young people who were studying humanities subjects in school, namely history and art, became more likely to support more socially liberal parties. Those studying a technical subject, such as design and technology, became more supportive of more radical right parties."

Important news for EU citizens with settled status in the U.K. who naturalise - Home Office says you CAN use your other passport. Made change to gov.uk two weeks after telling everyone British dual nationals could not www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

In 2018, we introduced a plan to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on London’s roads. It’s already made our roads safer, but we must go further and faster to eliminate this heartbreak across the capital.

Immigration salience - by local area Most affluent: 43% 2nd most affluent: 44% Middle fifth: 41% Second most deprived: 41% Most deprived: 38% Ipsos issues index, Feb 2026

This is appalling. The Home Office rejected an appeal from the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, that would have protected outstanding students in some of the world’s most dangerous countries from changes to the UK’s immigration system www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Ending free movement "led to a modest rise in the number of foreign born workers in the UK, but a dramatic shift in their countries of origin." 💥 New analysis from @jdportes.bsky.social & @johnspringford.bsky.social on the impact of Brexit on immigration to the UK 🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/the-impact-o...

The impact of Brexit on UK immigration - new research by @johnspringford.bsky.social & me for @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social & @ukandeu.bsky.social Brexit a) reduced EU-origin employees by 785K (2.3% of workforce) b) increased non-EU origin employees by 992K (2.95%) www.cer.eu/insights/imp...

Shorter UK graduate visa ‘dampens international student interest’: Reduction in work rights may be contributing to reduced international demand for UK study https://ow.ly/wgr750Yq5zq

Worth reading by @chriscurtis94.bsky.social. Abundantly clear to anyone that spends a cursory amount of time on public opinion that economic insecurity, exacerbated 10x by cost of living crisis is driving political force of our time, fuelling Labour’s woes chriscurtismk.substack.com/p/who-actual...

By @helenpacker.bsky.social in the @timeshighered.bsky.social

The precedent is eerily, chillingly precise. What the current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is doing to immigrants and refugees today is almost a carbon copy of what Sir William Joynson-Hicks was doing 100 years ago. And that's not a good thing. My column. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘Treat us fairly’: skilled workers face having their dream of settling in UK snatched away

Iran is host to one of the world’s largest refugee populations, most of them from Afghanistan. Here’s what to know about this group and how Iran’s approach has changed over time https://bit.ly/4h4QJBw

Treasury plans depend on net migration being much higher than current policy will deliver or current Home Secretary willing to accept. Something will have to give. Will Labour deliver tax rises and spending cuts just before an election to keep net imm close to zero? Or let imm rise to avert this?

Major changes to asylum system set to come into force www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lots of chat about Mahmoud copying Denmark's Social Democrats, and Labour 'winning' with tougher asylum and immigration policies. Jason Cowley here, for example. But there's a crucial difference between the two countries. www.thetimes.com/world/europe...

Oxford Street is going traffic-free. I’ve given the green light to transform it into a world-class, fully accessible pedestrian avenue. The heart of London, reclaimed for people.

If only there was some precedent in history of an "unsinkable" ship steering the wrong course at a potential hazard, at high speed, and not listening to warnings about the huge iceberg ahead....

Several canvassers say the *settlement* reforms (make over a million voters wait 10-15 years for settlement, not 5, is a top of mind concern for those affected & friends, family A basic fallacy in Home Office citing more in common polling on asylum reform - a different issue - and net migration

Labour have alienated the voters they had on the left, and failed to win over any of the voters they have courted on the right. Now their core appeal is all but gone and ever growing numbers of voters have exit options on the left, right and in the centre. Welcome to the Valley of Electoral Death.

"Ministers need to wake up." Indeed. Some shift away from the exceptional levels of overseas recruitment 21-24 was natural/desirable. But current "strategy" - no new visas and making life as unpleasant as possible for migrants already here - is madness. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Drop in overseas workers is ‘car crash’ for UK hospitals and care homes, say experts

This was obvious to anyone looking at this. They created a policy that attacks people's very status to be able to live in a country and settle. No amount of saying "rules change" will help. Alot of Labour MPs get this and are rightly livid. This should be a big wake up call for the rest.

Delighted to announce that following the consultation, I'm giving the green light to make Oxford Street traffic-free.

As far as I can tell from afar the most positive campaign, the one that offered some suggestion of hope, won. And that has to be a good thing for politics, because yes we need to confront the trade-offs, but there has to be an underlying positive message.

Sky News hearing Labour canvassers found that doubling (and tripling) the route to settlement has caused significant concern with those directly affected (Commonwealth migrants who have arrived in last 3 years) Sheer scale of changes not yet on the general media radar, though MPs hearing a lot

"Labour needs to rethink its major settlement reforms" "Applying these retrospectively to people already here will create an enormous constituency of grievance that would wreck any attempt to rebalance Labour’s voice on immigration" www.thenewworld.co.uk/sunder-katwa...

Gorton and Denton first thoughts - incredible result for the Greens who won the long battle to be the best placed anti-Reform candidate - helped by being the obvious anti-Labour candidate for disappointed progressives. As I noted in the Observer last month, a Revolt on the Left is growing

Labour mobility policy has the possibility to both provide refugee protection & meet host-country skill needs 📆 Join TOMORROW’s webcast: https://bit.ly/refugeework26

🔊"The special educational needs system absolutely does need a review. We've talked about it being in crisis for some time." Dr Amelia Roberts @ioe.bsky.social @ucl-ioe-phd.bsky.social speaks on BBC Breakfast about the highly anticipated #SchoolsWhitePaper and potential reforms to #SEND provision.

Zia Yusuf's rhetoric of protecting Christianity, rhetorically, is combined with an indecent threat to deport many tens of thousands of Christians, including those here 5-20 years with permanent status, as well as recent arrivals, from across the Commonwealth and elsewhere outside Europe

Fab Inside Politics by @georginaq.bsky.social today:

"This fragmented and uncertain contest will go to the wire, but one thing is already certain: defeat for Labour would be a disaster for the Starmer government" 🗳️ For everything you need to know about the Gorton and Denton by-election, check out Rob Ford's useful guide 👇 https://ow.ly/RjFm50YiSeY

🚨 OUT TODAY 🚨 Poor prison healthcare is harming public health and efforts to cut reoffending — with long-term costs to society. Our new briefing explores healthcare in British prisons and sets out key reforms. Read more: buff.ly/W6K4TDJ Kindly sponsored by Policy@Manchester

25% discount on my new book today and tomorrow, for anyone interested in an accessible overview of why immigration is difficult and unpopular

"But the inevitable trade-offs immigration policy presents mean that the reality is messier and more complicated than it might initially seem." 📖 @msumption.bsky.social looks at what immigration policy is for and explains the trade-offs ahead of her forthcoming book 🔗 ukandeu.ac.uk/what-is-immi...

Can the government boost domestic training by restricting migration? In a new briefing, @msumption.bsky.social and I find that migrants on work visas are a small part of a much wider picture. Here's what you need to know, in three posts. migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/co...

Policy debates often focus on who is eligible for work visas, but main applicants on work visas make up only a small share of overall migration. You can see what that means in this chart, which compares Skilled Worker visa grants with changes in the size of the migrant workforce.

🛂 New Paper | Settling Up: A new deal to unlock immigration reform and build trust Today, as the consultation window on the government’s proposed ‘earned settlement’ plan closes, our new paper on the issue calls for practical action to detoxify the immigration debate. demos.co.uk/research/set...

"I the past three years, a group of Nigerian families has moved into the area. Most are employed as engineers or health and social care workers." So Govt's main policy offer to this area is to try to kick these people out. Both futile and wrong. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

This is exciting! Our director, the brilliant @msumption.bsky.social, has written this super accessible and interesting book What is Immigration Policy For? (Spoiler alert: it’s complicated). Pre-order in the next three days for 25% off! Out on March 31 www.waterstones.com/book/what-is...

Immigration and the limits of "control": me in @prospectmagazine.co.uk on why, and how, Labour has got both the economics *and* politics of migration so wrong. www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/724...

UK migration could be negative this year – how will that hit the economy?

I have asked the BBC to scrutinise + correct the factually inaccurate claims made by Mr Nigel Farage about why net migration fell in 'Political Thinking with Nick Robinson' Here is the link if you want to do something like this. www.bbc.co.uk/contact/comp...

'The new rules won’t simply mean a longer wait for ILR. They will mean many people don’t qualify for ILR at all and have to leave the country'. @jamesbowes01.bsky.social on the government's earned settlement proposals ukandeu.ac.uk/remigration-...

I wrote for the Guardian about why Jim Ratcliffe's talk of Britain being "colonised" by immigrants crosses the line between legitimate debate and inflammatory rhetoric. It fuses echoes of Powellism with great replacement conspiracies of "civilisational erasure" www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Farage's claims here are straightforward lies (and it's about time the media/press said so) The correct figures are 160K (0.3%) and 900K (1.5%) www.gbnews.com/news/video-n...

Feels like I am going to have to keep writing this piece every other fortnight, forever. @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/article/e624...