Look ahead to 2025: Immigration, the economy and Britain’s relationship with both the USA & EU are expected to dominate the headlines

Local TV

We take a look ahead at the biggest issues facing the UK in 2025.

Transcript

00:00Now, we look ahead to what could be the biggest news stories in 2025, and we start with immigration.

00:08The Office for National Statistics reports that net migration has reached 786,000 in

00:15the last year. This continues the trend of massive numbers arriving seen in recent years.

00:22The total number of arrivals reached 1.2 million. To put that into perspective, that's

00:29roughly the same number of people who currently live in Birmingham, Britain's second largest

00:35city. This sustained figure has intensified debates over the strain on housing, infrastructure

00:42and public services.

00:43Well, immigration, it's a sort of the issue that of course, crosses lots of controversy.

00:48And as we sort of know that Keir Starmer has been in for five months, there was a statistics

00:52that produced that something like 20,000 people have sort of come on small boats since

00:57he's elected in July. Yeah, so large numbers of people who've got to sort of be put into

01:01sort of to housing somewhere or other, so there's a big issue there. But of course,

01:06it's the sort of the net migration. This is the sort of the difference between people

01:10leaving and coming into this country. And that's gone up by another sort of 900,000

01:15on the latest figures. And indeed, I was looking at something sort of just a short while ago,

01:19that UK productivity is taking hit from this, because of course, as an economy, we're not

01:23improving enough, at the best of times. But of course, we've got all these extra sort

01:28of bodies in the country. And of course, if you divide one by the other, it means of course,

01:32we're sort of becoming less productive, which is a problem.

01:35As the UK moves into 2025, the economy faces key challenges. Inflation, which has been

01:43a major issue in the last few years, is expected to ease below 2%, prompting potential interest

01:51rate cuts from the Bank of England. However, sluggish productivity, high public debt and

01:58cautious consumer spending highlight lingering uncertainties with the state of the UK economy.

02:05I think the government would like to sort of to turn things around if it could do so.

02:09The difficulty is, of course, this budget has had sort of a lot of negative impact.

02:13And certainly, so the business community are not happy. Indeed, many sectors are not happy

02:17with sort of what they believe is being sort of forced upon them. Whether the economy sort

02:21of starts to improve, I somehow doubt it. It's a longer term project. And maybe they're

02:26sort of looking towards the sort of four and a half years time when they'll sort of go

02:29into sort of the next election. So yeah, any sort of optimism, I think it's going to be

02:35sort of short lived. And indeed, there doesn't seem to be much of that about at the moment.

02:40As 2025 approaches, the UK's relationships with Europe and the US face key shifts. Labour's

02:48government under Sikir Starmer has signalled intentions to deepen UK-EU cooperation, particularly

02:55in defence and trade, while avoiding a full Brexit renegotiation. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's

03:02return to the US presidency adds unpredictability, with Labour figures critical of his policies

03:09and approach, complicating the famous special relationship.

03:13Well, Kier Starmer, he finds himself in this very curious position, you know, for a couple

03:19of generations. We've been kind of the in Europe, but also sort of the bridge to America

03:24now was no longer in Europe, for obvious reasons. And that's not going to sort of change any

03:29time soon. And we've also got sort of a new sort of administration in the US, which is

03:33going to be a lot more protectionist and talking about sort of imposing tariffs on lots of

03:39countries. But of course, the EU in particular, which some within sort of Trump's administration

03:44is calling another China, which of course is utterly ridiculous.

03:47There are concerns that Britain faces renewed challenges under a Trump administration, as

03:53his protectionist policies and scepticism towards multilateralism could strain transatlantic relations.

04:01Britain finds itself in this difficult sort of situation. Who does it go with? It can't

04:06sort of play both sides at the same time. Or can it? Yeah, this will take sort of statesmanship

04:10of a supreme level to sort of try and sort of balance this sort of this gap that's emerging.

04:16The hope is, of course, that Trump's bark is louder than his bite, as it were. And again,

04:22this was sort of electioneering and sort of common sense may prevail. As far as Trump

04:25is concerned, you know, anything could happen and probably will do. So I think it's going

04:29to be so really difficult, as I say, to balance. And indeed, we've still got lots of problems

04:34in Europe and economies and sort of the uncertainty in government. You know, we see that in France,

04:38as I say, that the world is sort of a lot less certain than we would have been used

04:43to in sort of recent years.

Category

Transcript

Recommended