Live updates: Follow the latest news on the UK general election
Most people in Britain want to cut immigration, according to new polling for The National which suggests Labour leader Keir Starmer will romp into Downing Street.
An exclusive Deltapoll survey shows 57 per cent want the number of immigrants “coming to the UK these days” to fall, with 13 per cent saying it should rise.
The majority includes 40 per cent who say the number should be “decreased a lot” and 17 per cent who want it “decreased a little”.
However, a Conservative push to make migration a key election issue has failed to revive the party's dire electoral prospects.
Our poll shows Labour heading for a landslide victory on July 4, with the Conservatives on the brink of a historic rout.
Labour gets 42 per cent support, with the Conservatives on 20 per cent. Such a margin would be unparalleled in postwar British history.
The ardently anti-immigration Reform Party – whose supporters are most likely to want a tougher border policy – sits on 17 per cent.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dismal personal ratings, with 70 per cent saying he is doing his job badly and 26 per cent well.
Labour leader Keir Starmer performs better, with 47 per cent scoring him well and 44 per cent badly.
Migration debate
Mr Sunak used the final head-to-head TV debate of the election campaign to go on the attack over migration.
Scorning Labour’s plans to negotiate the return of illegal migrants, he asked whether Mr Starmer would “sit down with the ayatollahs” or “do a deal with the Taliban”.
Mr Starmer hit back on Thursday by saying Mr Sunak had “no answer” to the backlog of asylum seekers already being housed in Britain.
He said it would take “literally hundreds of years” to clear the backlog by deporting people to Rwanda under Mr Sunak’s signature pledge.
Reform party leader Nigel Farage meanwhile defended his use of the term “invasion” to describe illegal migration across the English Channel.
More than 50,000 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel since Mr Sunak took power.
Legal migration is also a key issue, having added a net 745,000 people to the UK’s population in record annual figures published last year.
Mr Farage said mass migration had created a sense that “perhaps something about our culture is directly under threat”.
In the polling results, only 21 per cent are satisfied with the current level of immigration.
Among Conservatives, 72 per cent want to cut immigration and 54 per cent want it decreased a lot.
The figures rise among Reform supporters to 79 per cent wanting less immigration and 54 per cent much less.
While 48 per cent of Labour voters want immigration decreased, only 27 per cent want it down a lot.
Labour says it will form a new border security command as one of its first steps in office, using counterterror powers to tackle people smuggling.
The Conservatives say deportation flights to Rwanda would begin this summer if they win a fifth term.
Economic woes
The poll also finds there is dissatisfaction with Conservative economic policies after 14 years in office.
Only 31 per cent say the British economy is best off being run by Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Labour is better placed, with 47 per cent saying a Starmer government with Rachel Reeves as chancellor would be better for the economy.
The Deltapoll survey for The National also shows:
· A majority (54 per cent) support banning arms sales to Israel, while about 32 per cent say the war in Gaza will be important to their vote
· If there were a second referendum on EU membership, 46 per cent say they would vote to rejoin and 37 per cent to stay out
· The idea of making 18-year-olds do a year of military service is supported by 38 per cent and opposed by 50 per cent
· If Britain could vote in the US presidential election, 46 per cent would support Joe Biden and 24 per cent would side with Donald Trump.
The voting intention figures put Labour on course for a vast national swing only five years after it crashed to its worst defeat since 1935.
Under Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system, such a swing would typically produce a Labour majority of about 250 seats.
Deltapoll’s co-founder and director Joe Twyman said “all the indications” are that Labour will win the election and “by some distance”.
“The problems facing Keir Starmer, should he indeed become the UK’s next prime minister, remain substantial, however.
“While domestic issues around the cost of living, the NHS and immigration will feature prominently, big foreign policy questions will need to be addressed.”
Deltapoll interviewed 2,077 British adults online between June 24 and 26. The data has been weighted to be representative of the British adult population as a whole.
RESULT
Aston Villa 1
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Manchester City 2
Aguero (20')
Rodri (30')
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
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The 12 Syrian entities delisted by UK
Ministry of Interior
Ministry of Defence
General Intelligence Directorate
Air Force Intelligence Agency
Political Security Directorate
Syrian National Security Bureau
Military Intelligence Directorate
Army Supply Bureau
General Organisation of Radio and TV
Al Watan newspaper
Cham Press TV
Sama TV
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
