Sir Keir Starmer announces plans to lower legal migration

Published

1 year 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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Migrants deal a win for Starmer – and could help with fight against Reform

Published

3 hours ago

July 10, 2025

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Migrants deal a win for Starmer - and could help with fight against Reform

The bromance between Sir Keir Starmer and President Macron is so apparent – embraces all around.

This is some deft diplomacy from Sir Keir, who has been love-bombing his French counterpart ever since he became prime minister – trying to get closer ties, be it on security, on trade, and now of course on small boats.

And he has got a win today – he’s got President Macron to agree a deterrent deal.

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You remember the Conservatives were trying the Rwanda plan to deter people from coming by sending them back to Rwanda, a third country, if they came here illegally.

What the prime minister has agreed with President Macron today is a big deal. It’s a one in, one out deal.

What they’re going to do is, if someone arrives here illegally, they will be sent back to France, and in return, the UK will accept a legitimate asylum seeker. It might be someone who has family ties.

It’s going to start off really small – think of it as a pilot – as they’re going to test it out, see if it works.

It might be just a handful of people being sent back, maybe just under a thousand or so by the end of the year. But they will hopefully, for the prime minister, scale it up and it could become a real deterrent.

I’ll leave you with just one more thought: As Prime Minister Starmer and President Macron were doing this deal today, Nigel Farage was in the English Channel documenting illegal migrants making that crossing – 79 people being picked up by Border Force, taken off a dinghy and into Dover.

Polling out this morning by Portland suggests four in 10 voters who are planning on going to Reform would go back to Labour if the prime minister tackles small boats and drives down the crossings.

There is a real political imperative for him to try to start to resolve this problem. It’s going to count at the ballot box – immigration is a top-three issue in this country when it comes to voters.