Skip to player
Skip to main content
Skip to footer
Search
Connect
Watch fullscreen
Like
Comments
Bookmark
Share
Add to Playlist
Report
Look ahead to 2025: Immigration, the economy and Britain’s relationship with both the USA & EU are expected to dominate the headlines
Local TV
Follow
06/12/2024
We take a look ahead at the biggest issues facing the UK in 2025.
Category
🗞
News
Transcript
Display full video transcript
00:00
Now, we look ahead to what could be the biggest news stories in 2025, and we start with immigration.
00:08
The Office for National Statistics reports that net migration has reached 786,000 in
00:15
the last year. This continues the trend of massive numbers arriving seen in recent years.
00:22
The total number of arrivals reached 1.2 million. To put that into perspective, that's
00:29
roughly the same number of people who currently live in Birmingham, Britain's second largest
00:35
city. This sustained figure has intensified debates over the strain on housing, infrastructure
00:42
and public services.
00:43
Well, immigration, it's a sort of the issue that of course, crosses lots of controversy.
00:48
And as we sort of know that Keir Starmer has been in for five months, there was a statistics
00:52
that produced that something like 20,000 people have sort of come on small boats since
00:57
he's elected in July. Yeah, so large numbers of people who've got to sort of be put into
01:01
sort of to housing somewhere or other, so there's a big issue there. But of course,
01:06
it's the sort of the net migration. This is the sort of the difference between people
01:10
leaving and coming into this country. And that's gone up by another sort of 900,000
01:15
on the latest figures. And indeed, I was looking at something sort of just a short while ago,
01:19
that UK productivity is taking hit from this, because of course, as an economy, we're not
01:23
improving enough, at the best of times. But of course, we've got all these extra sort
01:28
of bodies in the country. And of course, if you divide one by the other, it means of course,
01:32
we're sort of becoming less productive, which is a problem.
01:35
As the UK moves into 2025, the economy faces key challenges. Inflation, which has been
01:43
a major issue in the last few years, is expected to ease below 2%, prompting potential interest
01:51
rate cuts from the Bank of England. However, sluggish productivity, high public debt and
01:58
cautious consumer spending highlight lingering uncertainties with the state of the UK economy.
02:05
I think the government would like to sort of to turn things around if it could do so.
02:09
The difficulty is, of course, this budget has had sort of a lot of negative impact.
02:13
And certainly, so the business community are not happy. Indeed, many sectors are not happy
02:17
with sort of what they believe is being sort of forced upon them. Whether the economy sort
02:21
of starts to improve, I somehow doubt it. It's a longer term project. And maybe they're
02:26
sort of looking towards the sort of four and a half years time when they'll sort of go
02:29
into sort of the next election. So yeah, any sort of optimism, I think it's going to be
02:35
sort of short lived. And indeed, there doesn't seem to be much of that about at the moment.
02:40
As 2025 approaches, the UK's relationships with Europe and the US face key shifts. Labour's
02:48
government under Sikir Starmer has signalled intentions to deepen UK-EU cooperation, particularly
02:55
in defence and trade, while avoiding a full Brexit renegotiation. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's
03:02
return to the US presidency adds unpredictability, with Labour figures critical of his policies
03:09
and approach, complicating the famous special relationship.
03:13
Well, Kier Starmer, he finds himself in this very curious position, you know, for a couple
03:19
of generations. We've been kind of the in Europe, but also sort of the bridge to America
03:24
now was no longer in Europe, for obvious reasons. And that's not going to sort of change any
03:29
time soon. And we've also got sort of a new sort of administration in the US, which is
03:33
going to be a lot more protectionist and talking about sort of imposing tariffs on lots of
03:39
countries. But of course, the EU in particular, which some within sort of Trump's administration
03:44
is calling another China, which of course is utterly ridiculous.
03:47
There are concerns that Britain faces renewed challenges under a Trump administration, as
03:53
his protectionist policies and scepticism towards multilateralism could strain transatlantic relations.
04:01
Britain finds itself in this difficult sort of situation. Who does it go with? It can't
04:06
sort of play both sides at the same time. Or can it? Yeah, this will take sort of statesmanship
04:10
of a supreme level to sort of try and sort of balance this sort of this gap that's emerging.
04:16
The hope is, of course, that Trump's bark is louder than his bite, as it were. And again,
04:22
this was sort of electioneering and sort of common sense may prevail. As far as Trump
04:25
is concerned, you know, anything could happen and probably will do. So I think it's going
04:29
to be so really difficult, as I say, to balance. And indeed, we've still got lots of problems
04:34
in Europe and economies and sort of the uncertainty in government. You know, we see that in France,
04:38
as I say, that the world is sort of a lot less certain than we would have been used
04:43
to in sort of recent years.
Recommended
2:30
|
Up next
More EU migrants coming - what’s different and why it matters?
Local TV
23/05/2025
11:27
Disruptor-in-Chief: 'Marmite' populist Farage seeks to 'bang another nail into conservatives coffin'
FRANCE 24 English
04/06/2024
2:30
Is Labour doing enough to tackle immigration?
Local TV
10/03/2025
0:28
What are the UK's post-Brexit immigration plans? Euronews answers
euronews (in English)
19/12/2018
1:31
Starmer: UK will 'reset' relations with the EU
euronews (in English)
12/07/2024
2:38
Manic Monday: Britain plunges deeper into Brexit crisis
Al Jazeera English
11/12/2018
4:33
WATCH: Nigel Farage declares Reform are 'carrying the narrative' on immigration after Labour White Paper
GB News
12/05/2025
2:45
Leave EU Supporters Launch Latest Ad in Controversial Campaign
VICE
08/07/2016
1:00
Will Labour reverse Brexit by the back door - a politics expert explains
National World - LocalTV
17/07/2024
12:44
'Worrying: Single EU member states are making asylum agreements with other countries'
FRANCE 24 English
09/07/2025
1:00
Philp: Labour’s immigration plans have collapsed into chaos
ODN
15/09/2023
2:41
UK to prioritise high-skilled workers in post-Brexit plans
FRANCE 24 English
19/12/2018
2:00
Brexit, five-years-on: Is the average UK citizen worse off because of the decision to leave the European Union
National World - LocalTV
24/01/2025
0:56
Unite behind Brexit: Theresa May to give key speech
euronews (in English)
02/03/2018
2:14
UK looks to rebuild relations with Europe under new leadership
euronews (in English)
17/07/2024
2:33
Why the EU should be watching closely as the UK prepares to head to the polls
euronews (in English)
02/07/2024
0:57
Keir Starmer announces UK-Iraq deal to tackle smuggling
ODN
28/11/2024
1:12
PM insists he can still hit net migration targets
ODN
25/02/2016
2:00
When might we see an end to the cost of living crisis?
National World - LocalTV
03/01/2025
1:37
Farage takes credit for Govt's tough immigration stance
ODN
12/05/2025
2:02
UK and France agree new migrant returns deal
ODN
10/07/2025
0:33
Labour would try and get a “better” Brexit deal for UK
ODN
31/01/2024
1:06
PM: I'm in favour of democratically controlled immigration
ODN
14/11/2019
1:01
Starmer: Returns deal will ‘break the model’
ODN
10/07/2025
3:03
Yanis Varoufakis on Jeremy Corbyn and Brexit - UpFront
Al Jazeera English
09/02/2017