LONDON – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged Monday to cut immigration numbers and make it harder to settle in the U.K., confronting an issue that has bedeviled successive governments and fueled the rise of a new anti-immigrant party that could threaten the country’s political establishment.
Starmer, whose center-left Labour Party won a landslide victory last July, is facing pressure from voters who are increasingly frustrated by high levels of immigration that many believe have strained public services and inflamed ethnic tensions in some parts of the country.
Starmer said he would end “Britain’s failed experiment in open borders,’’ less than two weeks after Reform UK, the hard-right party led by Nigel Farage, scored big victories in local elections. Labour and the center-right Conservatives, long the dominant parties in British politics, both saw their support crater in the contests for local government councils and mayors.
“Every area of the immigration system — work, family, and study — will be tightened up so we have more control,’’ Starmer said during a speech in Downing Street. “We will create a system that is controlled, selective and fair.’’
Immigration has been a potent issue in Britain for decades — especially since 2004, when the European Union expanded to Eastern Europe. While most EU countries restricted immigration from the new member states for a period of years, the U.K. immediately opened its labor market, attracting a flood of new arrivals.
By 2010, then-Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to cut annual net immigration to less than 100,000, a target four Conservative governments failed to meet. In 2016, anger over the government’s inability to control immigration from the EU was a big factor in Britain’s vote to leave the bloc.
But Brexit did nothing to reduce the number of people entering the country on visas for work, education and family reunification. Net migration — the number of people entering the U.K. minus those who left — reached more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023, according to official figures, almost four times the pre-Brexit level. It fell to 728,000 in the year to June 2024.
In recent years, concerns that the government has lost control of Britain’s borders have been fueled by the sight of thousands of migrants entering the U.K. on leaky, inflatable boats operated by people smugglers. Some 37,000 people crossed the English Channel on small boats last year, down from 45,755 in 2022, government statistics show.
Starmer has vowed to cut that number by tackling the criminal people-smuggling gangs that organize the journeys.
Now he has also vowed to reduce legal migration “significantly” by cutting the number of visas granted for low-skilled work, raising salary thresholds for employment-related visas and raising English proficiency standards for migrants. He declined to set a target for the reduction.
Starmer adopted the language of the pro-Brexit campaign he once opposed, saying his government would “take back control” of Britain’s borders.
He said previous Conservatiive governments had overseen “a one-nation experiment in open borders, conducted on a country that voted for control. Well, no more.”
Government plans published Monday pledge to slash the number of visas for low-skilled jobs and end overseas recruitment for care homes — essential but usually low-paid work. The government said it would improve the terms of employment in order to attract British workers to those jobs, but did not give details.
Martin Green, chief executive of industry body Care England, said international recruitment was “a lifeline” for the sector.
“Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding and no alternative, is not just short-sighted – it’s cruel,” he said.
Alleging that parts of the British economy had become “almost addicted” to cheap immigrant labor, Starmer said the government would invest more in apprenticeships and training for British workers.
It is a promise British governments have made, and failed to keep, before.
Most immigrants will have to live in the U.K. for 10 years, rather than the current five, to qualify for citizenship, Starmer said, with shorter waits for those who contribute and integrate.
Starmer said that “migration is part of Britain’s national story,” but that without firm rules “we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
Chris Philp, the Conservative immigration spokesman, said Labour’s proposals don’t go far enough.
“We intend to push to a vote in Parliament a measure that would have an annual cap on migration voted for and set by Parliament to restore proper democratic accountability, because those numbers were far, far too high,” he said.
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