Sir Keir Starmer has promised to bring down migration numbers by tightening up the rules on those allowed to come to the UK.
The prime minister promised his new plan will reduce net migration – the difference between immigration and emigration – by the end of this parliament in 2029.
Details of the plans have been published in a white paper, a government document that outlines policy proposals before being introduced as legislation.
Sky News has combed through the white paper to bring you the details.
Language requirements
All visa routes will require people to have a certain level of English proficiency.
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People coming with the main visa holders – dependents – will also have to have a basic understanding of English, which they currently do not.
The level of proficiency needed depends on the visa, with a skilled worker visa requiring at least upper intermediate level. Currently, it requires just an “intermediate” level.
To extend visas, people will have to show progression in their English.
Image: Keir Starmer announced the changes at a podium with ‘securing Britain’s future’ on the front. Pic: PA
Settled status
Currently, people have to live in the UK for five years before they can gain settled status.
Under the new plan, they will have to live in the UK for 10 years.
However, “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be allowed to apply for settled status after five years.
A new bereaved parent visa will be created so those in the UK who have a British or settled child that dies can get settled status immediately.
Settled status gives people the right to work and live in the UK for as long as they like, and provides them with the same rights as citizens, such as healthcare and welfare and the right to bring family members to live in the UK.
People with settled status can then choose to apply for British citizenship.
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British citizenship
People can qualify sooner for citizenship by contributing to UK society and the economy, like settled status.
The Life in the UK test will be reformed.
Social care visa
This visa, which allowed care workers to come to the UK due to a shortage, will not exist anymore.
There will be a transition period until 2028 when visa extensions and switching to the visa for those already here will be allowed.
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Skilled worker visa
People wanting to come to the UK on a skilled worker visa must now have at least an undergraduate university degree. The minimum was previously A-levels.
There will also be tighter restrictions on recruitment from overseas for jobs with “critical” skills shortages, as well as strategies to incentivise employers to increase training and participation rates in the UK.
Very highly skilled people, in areas the government identifies, will be given preferential access to come to the UK legally by increasing the number of people allowed to come through the “high talent” routes such as the global talent visa, the innovator founder visa and high potential individual route.
A limited pool of refugees will be allowed to apply for employment through the skilled worker route.
Image: Skilled worker visas will now require at least a university degree, with preferential access for highly skilled people. Pic: PA
Study visas
People on graduate visas will only be allowed to remain in the UK for 18 months after they finish their studies.
Currently, students finishing degrees can stay for two years if they apply for the graduate visa, or those finishing PhDs can stay for three.
Institutions sponsoring international students will have their requirements strengthened, with those close to failing their sponsor duties placed on an action plan and limits imposed on the number of new students they can recruit.
Sponsors, who can cover tuition fees and living costs, include overseas governments, UK government scholarships, UK government departments, UK universities, overseas universities, companies and charities.
Humanitarian visa
The Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan humanitarian visa routes will remain.
However, the government will review the effectiveness of sponsorship arrangements for those schemes so businesses, universities and community groups can “sustainably” sponsor those refugees.
Image: The government will continue to support humanitarian visas, such as the Afghanistan one after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021. Pic: AP
Domestic worker visa
To help prevent modern slavery, the government will reconsider this visa, which currently allows foreign national domestic workers to visit the UK with their employer for up to six months.
Businesses
Companies wanting to bring people from abroad to work for them in the UK will have to invest in the UK first.
To prevent exploitation of low-skilled workers on temporary visas already in the UK, the government will look at making it easier for workers to move between licensed sponsors for the duration of their visa.
The right to family life
A growing number of asylum seekers have used the “right to family life” – Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – to stop their deportation.
Legislation will be introduced to “make clear it is the government and parliament that decides who should have the right to remain in the UK”.
It will set out how Article 8 should be applied in different immigration routes so “fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional'”.
Image: A group of migrants was brought into Dover by Border Force as the PM announced immigration changes. Pic: PA
Foreign national offenders
The Home Office will be given powers to more easily take enforcement and removal action, and revoke visas in a much wider range of crimes where people did not serve jail time in other countries.
Deportation thresholds will be reviewed to take into account more than just the length of their sentence, with violence against women and girls taken more seriously.
Enforcement
Sir Keir said the immigration rules – at the border and in the system – will be more strongly enforced than before “because fair rules must be followed”.
People who claim asylum, particularly after arriving in the UK, where conditions in their home country have not materially changed, will face tighter controls, restrictions and requirements where there is evidence of abuse of the system.
Other governments will be made to play their part to stop their nationals coming to the UK, or from being returned.
Sponsors of migrant workers or students abusing the system will have financial penalties or sanctions placed on them, and they will be given more support to ensure compliance.
People on short-term visas who commit an offence will be deported “swiftly”.
Scientific and tech methods will be explored to ensure adults coming to the UK are not wrongly identified as children.
eVisas, which have now replaced physical documents, will help tackle illegal working and support raids on those overstaying their visas or on the wrong visa.
Major banks are legally obligated to refuse current accounts to individuals suspected of being in the UK illegally and to notify the Home Office. This will be extended to other financial institutions.
Two senior Labour MPs have suggested the prime minister may have to go within months if the government continues to perform poorly.
Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates said his sources – a member of the government and a prominent politician – have “put Sir Keir Starmer on notice”.
Both warned that, if Labour performs badly in next May’s elections across Wales, Scotland and London, it could mark the end of his time in Downing Street.
Coates added: “The level of unhappiness and despair in parts of the Labour Party is so striking that right now, on the first anniversary, I am hearing from ministers in government that Starmer might have to go in months.”
Reform UK is surging in the polls in Wales, while Labour faces a threat from left-wing parties such as the Greens in London.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
It comes as the prime minister made it clear that Rachel Reeves has his “complete support” as chancellor and remains integral to his project, Sky News’s political editor Beth Rigby understands.
She looked visibly upset during Prime Minister’s Questions, with a spokesperson claiming she had been affected by a “personal matter”.
A day earlier, Sir Keir’s controversial welfare bill was passed despite a sizeable rebellion from Labour MPs, with major U-turns meaning a new £5bn black hole has appeared in the country’s finances.
One senior figure told Rigby that the pair were as “as close politically” as any chancellor and prime minister have ever been.
“She is going absolutely nowhere,” they added.
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Welfare vote ‘a blow to the prime minister’
Ms Reeves’s tears sent markets spiralling, with the value of the pound and long-term government bonds falling sharply.
Later in the day Sir Keir, said Ms Reeves will be chancellor for a “very long time to come”.
The prime minister said it was “absolutely wrong” to suggest her tearful appearance in the Commons related to the welfare U-turn.
“It’s got nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with what’s happened this week. It was a personal matter for her,” he said while speaking to the BBC’s podcast Political Thinking with Nick Robinson.
“I’m not going to intrude on her privacy by talking to you about that. It is a personal matter.”
Asked if she will remain in post, he said: “She will be chancellor by the time this is broadcast, she will be chancellor for a very long time to come, because this project that we’ve been working on to change the Labour party, to win the election, change the country, that is a project which the chancellor and I’ve been working on together.”
He said Ms Reeves has done a “fantastic job” and added: “She and I work together, we think together. In the past, there have been examples – I won’t give any specific – of chancellors and prime ministers who weren’t in lockstep. We’re in lockstep.”
Sir Keir Starmer will set out his 10-year vision for the NHS in what the government says is “one of the most seismic shifts” in the health service’s history.
He will pledge three main facets of the plan: moving care into the community, digitising the NHS, and a focus on sickness prevention.
The prime minister will announce neighbourhood health services will be rolled out across England to improve access to the NHS and to shift care out of overstrained hospitals.
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What will the NHS 10-year health plan focus on?
Sir Keir has already promised thousands more GPs will be trained, and to end the 8am “scramble” for an appointment.
He also previously said his government will bring the NHS into the digital age, with “groundbreaking” new tools to support GPs rolled out over the next two years – including AI to take notes, draft letters and enter data.
And he will promise new contracts that will encourage and allow GP practices to cover a wider geographical area, so small practices will get more support.
Unite, one of the UK’s largest healthcare unions, welcomed the plan cautiously but said staff need to be the focus to ensure people are better looked after.
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‘Reform or die’
Sir Keir said: “The NHS should be there for everyone, whenever they need it.
“But we inherited a health system in crisis, addicted to a sticking plaster approach, and unable to face up to the challenges we face now, let alone in the future.
“That ends now. Because it’s reform or die.”
He said the government’s plan “will fundamentally rewire and futureproof our NHS, so that it puts care on people’s doorsteps, harnesses game-changing tech and prevents illness in the first place”.
The PM said it would not be an “overnight fix”, but claimed Labour are “already turning the tide on years of decline”, pointing towards more than four million extra appointments, 1,900 more GPs, and waiting lists at a two-year low.
“But there’s more to come,” he promised. “This government is giving patients easier, quicker and more convenient care, wherever they live.”
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3:05
Why has Starmer axed NHS England?
Neighbourhood health services
The newly announced neighbourhood health services will provide “pioneering teams” in local communities, so patients can more conveniently access a full range of healthcare services close to home.
Local areas will be encouraged to trial innovative schemes like community outreach door-to-door to detect early signs of illness and reduce pressure on GPs and A&E.
The aim is to eventually have new health centres open 12 hours a day, six days a week to offer GP services as well as diagnostics, post-operative care and rehab.
They will also offer services like debt advice, employment support, stop smoking help or weight management.
More NHS dentists
Dentists will also be part of the plan, with dental care professionals part of the neighbourhood teams.
Dental “therapists” will carry out check-ups, treatments and referrals, while dental nurses could give education and advice to parents or work with schools and community groups.
Newly qualified dentists will be required to practice in the NHS for a minimum period, which they have said will be three years.
Despite making “significant improvements”, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has lost the “trust and confidence” of some victims of grooming gangs, according to a report by the police watchdog.
Michelle Skeer, His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary, said that since 2019, when GMP started to review its non-recent child sexual exploitation investigations, “the force has improved its understanding and approach to investigating allegations of child criminal and sexual exploitation”.
The document, published today, said police have live investigations into “multi-victim, multi-offender” child sexual exploitation inquiries, involving 714 victims and survivors, and 1,099 suspects.
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2:00
‘Our chance for justice’
But despite recording improvements, a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) also identified:
• Various training gaps within the investigation team • Lack of consistency in evaluating case files between social care, health and police • Failures to initially support victims meant they had “lost trust and confidence” in police
The report was commissioned by the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham in 2024 to evaluate whether police, councils and health services can protect children from sexual exploitation in the future.
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1:40
Starmer to launch new grooming gang inquiry
The findings were issued as the final part of the CSE (child sexual exploitation) Assurance Review process which started in 2017. The first three reports examined non-recent child sexual exploitation in Manchester, Oldham and Rochdale.
Mr Skeer said that the force has been trying to improve its service to those who have experienced sexual exploitation, but previous failings have badly affected trust in GMP.
He said: “For some, trust and confidence in the police had been lost, and the force would not be able to rectify their experiences.
“It is vital that improvements are led by victims’ experiences, and if they do come forward, they are supported, protected and taken seriously.”
A recent report by Baroness Casey found a significant over-representation of Asian men who are suspects in grooming gangs in Greater Manchester, adding though authorities are in “denial” more needs to be done to understand why this is the case.
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6:52
Teen caught in child sex exploitation
Inspectors also said there were “training gaps” in some investigation teams and issues with data sharing, with local councils sometimes not willing to provide detectives with information, leading to “significant delays in investigations” into grooming gangs.
It cites problems with intelligence provided by Manchester City Council, which took months to arrive and “was so heavily redacted that some pages contained only a few words”, the report said.
GMP is the only force in the country to set up a dedicated team to investigate grooming gangs. Called the Child Sexual Exploitation Major Investigation Team (CSE MIT) it has about 100 staff and a ringfenced budget.
In October 2024, the force told inspectors there were 59 live multi-victim, multi-offender child sexual exploitation investigations, of which 13 were being managed by the CSE MIT.
The report adds: “The force fully accepts that it made mistakes in the past.
“It has taken positive and effective steps to learn from these mistakes and improve how it investigates recent and non-recent child sexual exploitation.”
Separately, the Baird Inquiry published in July 2024 found officers at GMP were abusing their power – making unlawful arrests, unlawful and demeaning strip searches, sometimes treating victims as perpetrators, and traumatising those who have suffered sexual abuse or domestic violence.