Engaging with Labour MPs on policies to support UK ELT

2024 is an election year and one that might see a change of government, so we are speaking to Labour MPs about our key policy asks.

We want their support on visas and immigration changes that will benefit UK ELT and reassurance around Labour's plans to impose VAT on private education.

In January we met three Labour MPs who are also shadow ministers: Stephen Kinnock, Barbara Keeley and Daniel Zeichner.

We met Stephen Kinnock, the Shadow Immigration Minister, at a virtual meeting of the BusinessLDN immigration working group. Barbara Keeley, the Shadow Tourism Minister, attended a meeting organised by the Tourism Alliance. Daniel Zeichner, the Shadow Environment Minister and MP for Cambridge attended a meeting at Bell International where he met Frank Pinner of Bell, Simon Crisp of CAE and Huan Japes from English UK.

In the meetings, we discussed:

• the need to extend the current French ID Card travel scheme for junior school groups to other EU nations
• the need to expand the Youth Mobility visa to EU nations
• the issue of work rights for ELT students, including greater access to work experience programmes

There was general agreement from the MPs that our objectives are proportional and realistic.

We will continue to engage with Labour Party MPs throughout 2024 in pursuit of our goal to make the UK the world's premier ELT destination once more. 

Please invite your MP to our next parliamentary reception on Thursday 16 May.