Sir Keir Starmer has told voters “Read my lips - I will bring immigration numbers down.”

The Labour leader unveiled new plans to curb net migration, among them a promise to ban “bad bosses” who break employment law by, for example, failing to pay staff minimum wage from hiring workers from abroad.

He also pledged to force employment sectors applying for foreign workers visas to train British people to do the jobs first.

The Labour leader took aim at the Conservatives’ record on rising immigration, which hit 685,000 last year.

Sir Keir told The Sun: “Read my lips - I will bring immigration numbers down.

“If you trust me with the keys to No10 I will make you this promise: I will control our borders and make sure British businesses are helped to hire Brits first.”

“This is a changed Labour Party, back in the service of working people. That means not just talking about sky-high migration but acting on it.”

He added: “The Conservatives repeatedly say they are going to cut these numbers. They have never done it. They have completely failed. They have never had a strategy to deal with it.”

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