Sir Keir Starmer announces plans to lower legal migration

Published

4 months ago

June 2, 2024

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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”.

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.”

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer ‘very sensible’ to accept football tickets worth thousands

Published

3 hours ago

September 21, 2024

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Lisa Nandy says Sir Keir Starmer 'very sensible' to accept football tickets worth thousands

Lisa Nandy has said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to accept thousands of pounds worth of football tickets was “very sensible”.

The minister for culture, media and sport also said she had never accepted free clothes from a donor.

Speaking to Sky News at the start of the Labour Party conference today, the MP for Wigan said: “The problem that has arisen since [Sir Keir] became leader of the opposition and then prime minister is that for him to sit in the stands would require a huge security detail, would be disruptive for other people and it would cost the taxpayer a lot of money.

“So I think he’s taken a very sensible decision that’s not the right and appropriate thing to do, and it’s right to accept that he has to go and sit in a different area.

“But I know that he’d much rather be sitting in the stands cheering people on with the usual crowd that he’s been going to the football with for years.”

Ms Nandy also said while she has not accepted free clothes – joking “I think you can probably see that I choose my own clothes sadly” – she doesn’t “make any judgements about what other members of parliament do”.

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She said: “The only judgement I would make is if they’re breaking the rules, so they’re trying to hide what they’re doing. That’s when problems arise.

“Because the point of being open and transparent is that people can see where the relationships are, and they can then judge for themselves whether there’s been any undue influence.”

She asserted there had not been an undue influence in gifts accepted by senior Labour figures, adding: “We don’t want the news and the commentary to be dominated by conversations about clothes.

“We rightly have a system, I think, where the taxpayer doesn’t fund these things. We don’t claim on expenses for them. And so MPs will always take donations, will always take gifts in kind.

“MPs of all political parties have historically done that and that is the system that we have.”

She added: “I don’t think there’s any suggestion here that Keir Starmer has broken any rules. I don’t think there’s any suggestion that he’s done anything wrong.

“We expect our politicians to be well turned out, we expect them to be people who go out and represent us at different events and represent the country at different events and are clothed appropriately.

“But the point is that when we accept donations for that or for anything else, that we declare them and we’re open and transparent about them.”

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Sir Keir, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves said yesterday they will no longer accept donations in the future to pay for clothes.

The announcement followed criticism of Sir Keir’s gifts from donors, which included clothing worth £16,200 and multiple pairs of glasses worth £2,485, according to the MPs’ register of interests.

The register shows Ms Rayner has accepted clothing donations to the value of £2,230.

Sky News also revealed the scale of Sir Keir’s donations this week as part of our Westminster Accounts investigation.

Sir Keir was found to have received substantially more gifts and freebies than any other MP – his total in gifts, benefits, and hospitality topped £100,000 since December 2019.