Sir Keir Starmer announces plans to lower legal migration
Labour has announced its plans to reduce net migration – with Sir Keir Starmer accusing the Conservatives of having “repeatedly broken their promises” to get the number down.
It marks another attempt by the Labour Party to appeal to Conservative voters.
Figures published after Rishi Sunak called the general election showed a net of 685,000 arrived in the UK last year – down from a record of 764,000 in 2022.
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The 2023 figure is still three times the number in 2019 when the last election took place. The Conservatives promised in their manifesto that year to get net migration down.
In 2012, when the data from the Office for National Statistics starts, net migration was just under 200,000.
Sir Keir said he wanted to see any government he leads ban “the practices employed by businesses who exploit the migration system by illegally undercutting working conditions”.
The announcement tonight mirrors policies proposed by shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper in November last year, and some bear similarities to current government objectives.
Sir Keir added: “With Labour, Britain will be less reliant on migration by training more UK workers.
“The Tories have repeatedly broken their promises to bring down net migration. Since 2010, they have published four manifestos promising to bring down net migration.”
The Labour leader said he wants to compel parts of Whitehall to cooperate so “migration triggers a plan to train UK workers and improve jobs”.
Labour is trying to outflank the Conservatives on migration. Pic: Reuters
Employment sectors like health and construction that have been reliant on migration to fill “skill gaps” will be made to draw up workforce plans, with another pledge to reform the points-based migration system.
The aim, according to Labour, is to “fire up skills training rather than look overseas”.
One pledge is to ban employers and agencies that break employment law from hiring overseas workers.
Another is to stop the “workplace exploitation” of foreign workers being used to undercut wages.
Some in the Conservative Party have claimed Labour are rebranding policies the government has already enacted.
The government previously pledged to increase the threshold on salaries required for visas, and pledged to scrap “cut-price shortage labour from overseas” by scrapping discounts to visa salary requirements for those in short-staffed sectors.
Those employers looking to get on the shortage occupation list have to show they are also training domestic workers.
Conservative candidate Jonathan Gullis tweeted that “nobody buys” Sir Keir’s plans.
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A spokesperson for Reform UK, which is campaigning heavily on reducing immigration, said: “Sir Keir’s first suggestion is to prosecute a law that already exists about illegally paying below minimum wage, the other is a pious wish.
“Labours offer is nothing new and will make no difference. If you want to make a change, Vote Reform to freeze immigration.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been urged to “reject the path of least resistance” and consider increasing taxes in the budget.
The Institute for Government (IfG), a leading think tank, said Labour’s “rash” and “unrealistic” approach to tax has left the chancellor reaching for “piecemeal changes”.
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The government has repeatedly said it will not increase VAT rates, income tax or national insurance at the budget in November.
But a report by the think tank calls on Ms Reeves to commit to serious tax reform, instead of reaching for an “eclectic grab bag of tax raisers”, which could further complicate the system.
It comes after the Resolution Foundation proposed a 2p cut in national insurance, matched by a 2p rise in income tax, to create a “level playing field” and protect workers’ pay.
Tory shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said Ms Reeves was “preparing even more tax rises, set to hit families already struggling and choke off jobs at the very moment we need them most”.
She added: “Every Labour government ends the same way, with more people out of work, higher taxes and a bigger black hole in the public finances.”
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Ms Whately’s remarks came as the government announced a £25m funding boost for the expansion of youth hubs.
The Premier League has joined forces with Labour to support the expansion, with top football clubs signing up to help get more young people into work.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden will be speaking to Sky News Breakfast about the plans this morning.
Scrapping two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, report suggests
Meanwhile, a report has suggested scrapping the controversial two-child benefit limit would reduce child poverty, but not necessarily help with a youngster’s early development and their readiness for school.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) concluded the policy has “no statistically significant impact” on the proportion of children in England achieving what is known as a “good level of development” by age five.
The two-child limit, which was announced by the Conservatives in 2015 and came into effect in 2017, limits child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.
The government is expected to publish a strategy to tackle child poverty this autumn and has been under pressure to scrap the policy, which charities and organisations working in the sector estimate pulls more than 100 children a day into poverty.
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