Starmer immigration speech live: We will take back control of our borders

Times

12-05-2025

Sir Keir Starmer said without controls on immigration 'we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together'.
He said the immigration system is 'almost designed to permit abuse'.
It encourages some businesses to bring in lower paid workers rather than invest in our young people, he said.
It is also 'sold by politicians to the British people on an entirely false premise', he said.
If Nigel Farage is the political catalyst for Labour's immigration crackdown, the philosophical inspiration seems to be Danish.
Labour has long been uncomfortable with any criticism of immigration. But Sir Keir Starmer is now saying he supports it not despite being a progressive leader, but because of it.
The prime minister repeatedly insisted reducing immigration was 'fair' ,saying that 'nations depend on rules' and that without them 'we risk becoming an island of strangers'.
Such a progressive argument has been pioneered by Denmark's Social Democrats, who argue that a cohesive society with a strong safety net cannot co-exist with mass immigration.
Mette Frederiksen, Denmark's prime minister, argued recently: 'Being a traditional Social Democratic thinker means you cannot allow everyone who wants to join your society to come. It's impossible to have a sustainable society, especially if you are a welfare society.'
The US left is already looking closely at this line of argument and Starmer appears to have embraced it wholeheartedly.
The prime minister promised that migration will fall, but insisted it's 'not just about numbers'.
Starmer said: 'We will create a system that is controlled, selective and fair. A clean break with the past. We will link access to visas directly to investment in home grown skills.'
'If we do need to do more, then mark my words we will,' he added.
'Migration is part of Britain's national story,' the prime minister said.
He spoke of the events of last week commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day and the 'great rebuilding' after the war.
'Migrants were part of that and make massive contribution today,' he said.
'You will never hear me denigrate that. But people should commit to integration and learning our language. And the system should distinguish between those that do and don't. That's fair. Britain must compete for the best talent in the world.'
Sir Keir Starmer opened his announcement on migration by promising to 'take back control of our borders'.
He accused the previous Conservative government of conducting a 'one nation experiment in open borders'.
The prime minister said everybody knows the 'take back control' slogan and what it meant on immigration, but what followed with the previous government was 'the complete opposite'.
Between 2019 and 2023 net migration quadrupled to nearly one million in 2023, which is 'about the population of Birmingham', he continued.
'That's not control, it's chaos.'
One of the most consequential elements of Sir Keir Starmer's promise of a 'clean break' on immigration is whether he can end a Whitehall consensus that importing foreign workers is good for the economy.
The Home Office is deeply sceptical of this argument but is now taking it head on: Yvette Cooper argued on Sunday that if it were true the past decade would have been a time of surging growth.
But the Treasury has always firmly believed that immigration makes Britain richer and means more money for public services. Along with the Office for Budget Responsibility's conclusion that higher immigration as more money for the chancellor, the power of this argument within government has repeatedly overwhelmed years of promises to bring down numbers.
Starmer is already facing questions about whether his plan will be enough. To truly change government thinking on immigration, he will have to persuade the Treasury that it is not the economic and fiscal boon it has long assumed.
Government plans to get rid of care worker visas risks causing 'significant problems' in the sector, a care home chain director has said.
Amy Clark, commercial director of a Cornwall care home chain, told the BBC's Today programme that the measures could cause challenges because recruiting locally is 'very, very difficult'.
She said even when they raise wages they do not get applicants.
Continuing to pay higher than the minimum wage is also becoming 'increasingly difficult' due to government changes to national insurance and the minimum wage.
It comes after Care England's chief executive Martin Green labelled the government's plans 'cruel'.
The general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, professor Nicola Ranger, is also expected to tell its annual congress that the government has 'no plan to grow a domestic workforce' and its plans are 'pandering and scapegoating'.
• Automatic residency rights will cease to apply after five years and the time a person must have spent in the UK in order to qualify will be extended to ten years• The wait for residency will be reduced based on a 'contributions-based model', including the consistency of tax payments or evidence of working in public services or highly skilled private sector jobs• English language requirements will be raised across all immigration routes• Skilled worker visas will require a university degree• Tighter restrictions will be introduced on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages• Care providers will no longer be able to hire workers from overseas• Overseas citizens will require digital IDs• The rules could be tightened up around the right to a family life for foreign offenders looking to evade deportation
The government's resistance to setting a new net migration target has been criticised by Reform and the Conservatives.
The Conservatives have promised to force a vote on a binding cap. Reform have accused the government of 'merely tinkering around the edges' with a plan 'doomed to fail'.
Net migration rose to a record high of 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said on Sunday that she thought a target 'undermined the credibility of anything that governments do … so, we're not taking that specific target approach'.
Migrants who pay their taxes on time, volunteer in the community and work in public sector or high-skilled jobs will be prioritised for residency rights under new immigration reforms.
Sir Keir Starmer is set to unveil plans to drive down net migration in the wake of sweeping election gains by Nigel Farage's Reform UK by making it harder for migrants to secure settlement and citizenship in the UK.
The prime minister will declare in a Downing Street press conference that indefinite leave to remain in Britain is 'a privilege that must be earned, not a right'.
• Read in full: Staying in UK is a privilege not a right, Keir Starmer will tell migrants