Sir Keir Starmer has said that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” unless it introduces stricter immigration controls.
Launching his long-awaited white paper in Downing Street, the Prime Minister said Labour would “take back control of our borders” with measures that would aim to tighten every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study.
Despite vowing migration would fall, Sir Keir said it was “not sensible” to put a “hard edge cap” on it, adding that every single prime minister who had promised one had failed.
However, he added: “Let me put it this way, nations depend on rules, fair rules.
“Sometimes they are written down, often they are not, but either way, they give shape to our values, guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to each other.
“In a diverse nation like ours ... we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
The 69-page white paper, published on Monday morning after a Downing Street press conference, sets out what Sir Keir described as a “controlled, selective and fair” system to reduce net migration from its current figure of 728,000 in the 12 months to June last year.
Net migration is the difference between the number of people moving to the UK and the number leaving.
Legislation tightened
The reforms are part of Sir Keir’s attempts to combat the rise of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which made significant gains in this month’s local elections. This was partly blamed on Labour’s failure to tackle immigration.
They include plans to raise foreign workers’ skills requirements to degree level, raise the standards of English language required for all types of visa including dependents, and increase the time it takes to gain citizenship from five years to as many as 10.
Migrants who demonstrate a “contribution” to the economy and society through their tax returns, who work for the NHS and other public services, who have engineering jobs or who do outstanding voluntary service will be entitled to fast-track their permanent residency.
Care homes will be barred from recruiting staff overseas and bringing them to the UK from later this year. They will instead be required to hire British staff or foreign workers who are already in the UK.
Any foreign national who commits any type of offence could be barred from the UK under changes that mean the Home Office will be informed of all crimes committed by migrants, rather than only those meriting a jail sentence.
Judges’ powers to block deportations will also be curbed.
In the white paper, Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will unveil plans to tighten legislation that allows courts to grant asylum to foreign criminals and illegal migrants under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in “exceptional circumstances”.