Immigration Panic is Fake News on UK Street

New polling from YouGov and Best for Britain reveals that the Cost of Living Crisis is the definitive top concern for the UK public, both nationally and locally. This finding starkly challenges the current political narrative, suggesting the national debate is disconnected from personal experience and politically inflated, Daily Dazzling Dawn understands.

The Polling Disconnect: Immigration's Dramatic Local Drop-The most significant finding that challenges the current political focus is the dramatic drop in the perceived importance of immigration when the public moves from considering national issues to their local community.

Nationally, Cost of Living ranks first, and Immigration & Asylum ranks second, with 52% of people citing it as a major national issue. However, when asked about their own local communities, immigration concerns plummet to seventh place, with only 26% of respondents listing it as a top-three local issue—half the national figure. Meanwhile, the Cost of Living remains the number one priority locally, with Health rising to second place.

Advocacy groups suggest this massive disparity is evidence of a 'manufactured panic' about immigration. They argue the high national concern is not based on personal experience or direct local pressure, but is instead amplified by political discourse and media exposure. This political focus is therefore criticized for distracting from issues that affect voters' daily lives, such as health and crime, which rank much higher locally than immigration.

Updated Context: Government’s Policy Focus

The polling data, gathered in September 2025, lands amid major policy pushes by the Government.

The Cost of Living Priority (The True Top Concern)

The Cost of Living Crisis remains the undisputed number one priority across the political spectrum, including for Labour voters, 56% of whom named it a major national issue. This unifying concern, driven by rising energy bills and inflation, is the issue on which the public is demanding action.

The Current Immigration Strategy-Despite low local concern, the government has recently focused heavily on border control and migration policy. This focus is possibly aimed at addressing the high national anxiety over issues like the record number of asylum claims—which hit 111,084 in the year ending June 2025—and the increasing number of asylum seekers accommodated by the Home Office.

Recent policy moves include an announced contribution-based settlement model that would double the minimum route to settlement from five to ten years for most new arrivals, intended to reduce net migration. The government is also planning to increase the cost of certain immigration fees, such as proposing to double the Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) fee for employers, to raise revenue and reduce the cost to taxpayers.

This context highlights a potential strategic gap: the government is expending significant political capital on a high-profile national issue (Immigration) that the electorate does not feel is a major problem where they live, while the Cost of Living Crisis and Health—which are top priorities both nationally and locally—demand more urgent attention.

Labour Voter Priorities-The poll provides critical insights for Labour’s electoral strategy. For those who voted Labour at the last general election, the Cost of Living (56%) and the Economy (39%) were overwhelmingly bigger national priorities than Immigration (34%). Crucially, in a local context, the disparity is stark: the Cost of Living is a priority for almost five times as many Labour voters (62%) as Immigration (13%).

This reinforces the analysis that Labour’s path to power is best secured by focusing on economic hardship and public services rather than allowing the political narrative to be dominated by the immigration debate.