First Gen Immigrant Perspective

[HavingaWobbly]

Hello,

I have been reading MNet for years now and with election looming I had become an active reader to understand more perspectives.

I will write down some points about me and I will appreciate your help in understanding which party best represents me and will work for people like us.
1- Our gross salaries are in the range of £160-180k , depending upon the bonus. We both started at 25k. Some.of our british classmates are on far more than us.
2- We have been in the UK for 10 years. We have paid NHS surcharge, for the last 10 years. We have used NHS only once for a surgery. All our other treatments are undergoing privately via private medical insurance.
3- Bank owns our home with mortgage for next 20 years.
4- We have a young child under 2 years of age.
5- We are from the country where education and hard work are primary factors in raising living standards. Our parents, considered lower income group in the country, have sent us to best possible schools in our home country and we would like to do the same for our child here, and we think it would mean sending them to private school.
6- Other than our savings through salary, we don't have any other source of income. We don't have any inheritance anywhere in the world. We don't have any family/support in the UK.
7- We both work hard, 12 hrs day and 60-70 hrs week. In our industry, this is not the norm. We go extra extra extra mile to ensure that when the time for axe comes, we are safe. Thankfully we have been saved multiple times, even with visa issues. We delayed having our child so that we can be in good position at work before we take more responsibility. The delay costed us a lot.

8- We save a lot of our salaries, we don't eat out, rarely shop and live extremely frugally. With our bringing up, this is like a habit now. Other than prime, we don't pay for any entertainment.

9- We are lucky that we are able to continue our jobs and have no severe medical limitations. But hard luck can befall anyone.

10- We are from a religion that rarely comes in the news in the UK, so not bothered about it.

11- Our hope is we return to our home country when our child is set in their education and we are confident they can find their own path.

Our concerns - in no priority order
1- We want to be able to earn and increase our salaries without getting taxed excessively for trying to make ourselves better.
2- We want to be able to give best possible education to our child without getting ostracised.
3- Better performing NHS, with less overhead.
4- Safe spaces for our girl child.

This is a similar situation for a lot of our friends here.

I know conservatives have ruined the services , support systems for public. The corruption is on third world country levels.

Labour doesn't seem to care people like us as we are not low earning, even though we are not wealthy. We have built whatever with our hard earned salaries and paid all needed taxes.

We don't know whom to vote for. I don't think any party represents us and our issues. We want to use our vote effectively.

Please suggest what we are missing in finding the most suitable representative.

There are a lot of us confused about who to vote for. That can be seen as a positive. In some countries the options are wildly beneficial to only some groups.
I would look at your local MP options. Who will do the best for your local area? Do they even live there?

Good point.
Our area representative lives locally. Their voting record in parliament is abysmal. This area consistently votes for this party and the chances are they will win again.
The other candidates have never been heard from and their pamphlet didn't have any clear plan on what they are doing in our area.

I think most likely our vote will be wasted, irrespective of how we vote.

For what it's worth -

The NHS surcharge bears little relationship to the actual cost of services. It's very low and chances are, depending on the surgery you had, you might well not have contributed more than it cost.

Private healthcare is propped up by the NHS as any real emergency during treatment and they push you back to the NHS. So the costs are artificially lower.

You can't both pay less tax and have a better NHS and education system. Better public services cost more.

Also the NHS spends a lot less on overheads than most comparable countries

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/blogs/comparing-nhs-to-health-care-systems-other-countries

Fair enough. We have been paying taxes as well , 40% and 60%.
How much more tax, you expect for people like us to pay?

I just got the sense that you thought you had overpaid having paid the surcharges, I was trying to correct that impression

Ultimately you need to decide if you care more about tax or public services.

You can't both pay less tax and have better public services - it's your choice.

I pay a lot of tax too fwiw

Thank you for clarifying.

I think I didn't make my point clearly.
I don't think I have met anyone in my circle who complains about paying taxes. We do see our taxes working so no problem in paying it.

We have only one means of creating wealth, we are paying taxes on it fairly. We fear that next government increases will hurt us most as we are seen as not paying enough taxes, when the taxes we pay are pretty high compared to the services we utilise. For 10 years, we had access to no public funds, except NHS.

Vote Reform. They will not win but they'll be a great opposition to Labour. I'm also in similar circumstances as you are , ethnic minority( I don't think Reform
Is racist ), educated here, British. I know that by voting Reform, you'll send a message to Labour to actually listen to people they otherwise will totally ignore.

Thanks.
Today Reform is demonising people coming via boats, I don't think I trust them enough to not demonise people like me in couple of years. If they are major opposition this year, they could be in power in next election.

Labour is demonising people like me because we are high earners.
Conservative are demonising people who are down on their luck/ need support.

Similar position to yours.

We are voting LibDem.

Would have voted Labour if it was not for the signals that their stance on class is unnecessarily divisive (eg tax on private schools, continued reference to working class) and their failure to disclose their plans on taxes. Plus failure to address the EU issue.
We can't bring ourselves to vote Tory given their track record.
Farage is a snake oil salesman and many of his acolytes in Reform hold views that I consider abhorrent. And they will probably see the likes of us with suspicion (not British born for starters)
Green manifesto is really a wish list.

So, in our search for a political home that recognises that things need to change, that taxes need to be progressive and services reform is needed, that believes in choice and aspirations and that is realistic about the impact of and need to address Brexit, we are voting LibDem.

If you don't want to vote for Reform, the next best option is Labour, which will win anyway. The worst possible option is Conservatives. I hate them with passion, as a self employed female single parent small business owner. They have destroyed my life and made me feel unsafe in this country.

Yes, Labour would have been our choice , if not for them being ambiguous on taxes and private schools.