In government, Labour has committed to reducing migration. Labour Together is supporting this agenda with a series of papers looking at how to create a migration system that puts country first. In October, we published our first proposal, for an Australian-style National Migration Plan, showing one way Labour could reduce the number of legal migrants while making sure Britain’s economy gets the contributions it needs. Now, in this paper, we turn to how a mandatory, universal, national identity credential - BritCard - can help Britain control illegal migration and secure its borders.

This report, by Labour Together’s Director of Devolution, JP Spencer, sets out a bold vision for how to rebalance the UK economy and create prosperity in every part of the country. It outlines four key recommendations to drive economic growth, improve infrastructure, and boost regional economies, arguing that there is a moral, economic, and political case for doing so.

This report, authored by Jonathan McClory, urges the UK government to adopt a fresh soft power strategy to strengthen Britain’s global influence against the backdrop of geopolitical and economic insecurity. 

The previous government was asleep at the wheel on critical minerals. Its approach was too slow, too general and given too little support. This failure of strategy endangered the UK’s growth, green ambitions and security. The Labour government has an opportunity to fix this in the new critical minerals strategy. This should be closely informed by the upcoming industrial strategy, laser-focused on the UK’s strengths and needs, and supported by the institutions and policy tools to deliver it.

Labour has committed to reducing migration. There are various ways this can be achieved. This paper sets out one way an Australian-style National Migration Plan could work. This is the best answer we have seen to the problem of how to reduce numbers while making sure Britain’s economy gets the contributions it needs.

For the first time, LT has conducted public opinion polling in the twelve current mayoral areas and the two future ones with elections in 2025. We wanted to understand how those who actually experienced devolution felt about it.

Stability has been central to all calls for an industrial strategy. Academics, businesses, and policy-makers have made their case for an industrial strategy. In an increasingly competitive global market, they want certainty to invest and a coherent approach to economic policy-making.

This report, by Sam Freedman, sets out how empowering mayors with greater oversight of the health, education, criminal justice and other public service systems, could help Labour deliver its public services mission. JP Spencer, Director of Devolution Policy at Labour Together, writes a foreword.

“The cost-of-living crisis has ended.” So said Andrea Leadsom, a minister in the Department of Health and Social Care, in late March 2024. Her words may come to haunt her.

In this report, we show how far from the truth that triumphalist statement was. The cost-of-living crisis, far from over, is still painfully real for voters across Britain.

In this paper, we explore three pillars which could underpin an effective and popular migration system, showing where Labour is already addressing them and where there are further opportunities to do so.

This report, by Christopher Thornton, argues that British foreign policy can lead the world in the pursuit of peace and the resolution of conflict. Jonathan Powell, formerly chief of staff to the Prime Minister and chief negotiator during the Northern Ireland peace process, writes a foreword.

In this report, Oli de Botton, an education policy expert and former headteacher, makes the case for curriculum reform that is “broad and bold”. Rather than simply preparing children for running the gauntlet of examinations and university applications, de Botton argues that education can, and should, prepare children to live a full life - and that we will all benefit as a result.

In this paper, Hamish Falconer - a Labour Together Policy Fellow, former diplomat and Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Lincoln - draws together industrial strategy and diplomacy, which have traditionally occupied separate domains within government. The convergence of domestic and foreign policy is perhaps the central policy trend of the past decade. Here, Falconer shows how Labour could place national security at the heart of its wider economic agenda.

For too long, Britain has been caught in a doom loop. Low investment has caused low productivity, which has fed into stagnating growth and flat productivity. In this paper, we chart the long story of underinvestment, which is a regional as much as a national story, and its devastating impact on Britain. In its place, we argue for targeted public and private investment to reverse that, and, in so doing, build a new and better Britain.

In November 2023, Rishi Sunak drew together tech industry executives to gaze into a crystal ball and pontificate about a future AI apocalypse. In this paper, Emily Middleton and Kirsty Innes explore what about technology the public actually fears and what gives them cause for hope.

We live in an age of insecurity. War has returned to the European continent. Political upheaval has disrupted some of the most stable democracies in the world. A rising China is destabilising the old, America-centric global order. Britain has been uniquely exposed. Cutting hard and fast after the financial crisis, our economy has been starved of investment. Growth has flatlined. Our public services are crumbling. In this paper, we show that insecurity defines the lives of millions of Britons across the country - and what a future government could do to foster security and rebuild hope.

While we don’t yet have culture wars, we do have culture clashes. This paper argues that there is still time to bridge our divides, and shows how we can do so. Its author, Sunder Katwala, is the Director of British Future and the leading authority on questions of culture and identity in Britain today. Together with British Future, we publish it at a critical moment, as Westminster returns to work and gears up for an election that will place culture and identity centre stage.

In advanced democracies across the world, the last forty years have seen women move left, shifting their support from conservative to progressive parties. One country, however, proved an exception. In almost every post-war election, Britain’s Conservative Party won more of its support from women than men, and Labour won more votes from men than women. Now, that has reversed. In this paper, Professor Rosie Campbell and Christabel Cooper explore what has changed and why.

In December 2022, Keir Starmer committed a future Labour government to replacing the House of Lords. In its place he promised “a new, smaller, democratically elected second chamber,” that will represent “the regions and nations of the United Kingdom.” In this report, we explore public attitudes to the House of Lords and the possible scope for reform.

In 'A New Business Model for Britain', Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves sets out ‘securonomics’, her vision for Britain's economy with Labour in power. She describes the weaknesses in the British economy, some dating back decades and others the result of thirteen years of austerity and chaos. She also shows what Labour would do differently. Drawing on the example set by centre-left governments across the world, particularly the "modern supply side economics" of the Biden Administration, she shows that Britain can rebuild its economic strength amidst the uncertainty of an "age of insecurity".