Sir Keir Starmer has promised to “tighten up every area of the immigration system” as he unveiled the Government’s crackdown on immigration.
In a Downing Street speech on Monday, the Prime Minister vowed that the Labour Government will “take back control of our borders” and close the book on a “squalid chapter” for politics and the economy.
He set out his party’s sweeping plan to cut UK net migration the press conference.
The proposals will see foreign workers face harsher visa restrictions and it will be made more difficult for firms to hire from abroad without first investing in training in Britain.
Migrants will be told they need to spend up to a decade in the UK before they can apply for citizenship and English language requirements will be increased as part of the crackdown.
Sir Keir said without controls on immigration "we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together".
He added: “Migration is part of Britain’s national story. We talked last week about the great rebuilding of this country after the war.
“Migrants were part of that, and they make a massive contribution today. You will never hear me denigrate that.
“But when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language, and our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don’t. I think that’s fair.
Sir Keir said “enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall” as a result of the policies in the Immigration White Paper.
Meanwhile, the Home Secretary has been warned that plans to stop overseas recruitment for care worker visas are “cruel”.
Yvette Cooper said that the overseas recruitment for care worker visas will be stopped, as part of plans to reduce “lower-skilled” visas by “up to 50,000” in the next year.
Sir Keir has also said the rules around the right to a family life for foreign offenders looking to evade deportation will be tightened. However, he confirmed that the UK will not look to leave the European Court of Human Rights and its Article 8, which has notably been used by foreign criminals to avoid deportation.
Under the white paper proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship, but so-called “high-contributing” individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
Meanwhile skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
Ministers are looking to bring down net migration figures, which stood at 728,000 in the year to mid-2024.
Ms Cooper told Sky News On Sunday that “we will be closing the care worker visa for overseas recruitment”.
Under current rules, to qualify for a care worker visa a person must have a certificate of sponsorship from their employer with information about the role they have been offered in the UK.
The Home Secretary said the system will change to “prevent” it being used “to recruit from abroad” but “we will allow them to continue to extend visas and also to recruit from more than 10,000 people who came on a care worker visa, where the sponsorship visa was cancelled”.
Care England’s chief executive Martin Green has labelled the Government’s plans as “cruel”.
The plans come less than a fortnight after Reform UK surged to victory in local council elections across England, a result that deputy leader Richard Tice has said was “because people are raging, furious, about the levels of both legal and illegal immigration”.
The Conservatives have said that the Prime Minister is “trying to take steal credit for recent substantial reductions in visa numbers that resulted from Conservative reforms in April 2024”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp added: “Starmer is the same man who wrote letters protesting against deporting dangerous foreign criminals and has overseen the worst ever start to a year for illegal immigrants crossing the channel.
“The idea that Starmer is tough on immigration is a joke.”
