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UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has announced a migration crackdown to finally “take back control of our borders”, more than five years after Brexit took effect.
In sweeping reforms to Britain’s immigration system, migrants to the UK will need to spend a decade in the country before applying to settle unless they can show “a real and lasting contribution to the economy and society”.
The proposal to end automatic settlement after five years is part of planned curbs on legal migration that will also heavily restrict employers’ ability to hire overseas workers for low-skilled roles.
Starmer said Britain had seen a “one-nation experiment in open borders” under the last Conservative government, telling a Downing Street press conference on Monday: “That’s not control, that’s chaos.”
The prime minister said his proposed changes, described by the Tories as too timid, would bring to an end a “squalid chapter” for Britain’s society and economy and would put an emphasis on training and hiring UK workers.
Yvette Cooper, home secretary, said on Sunday that the overseas recruitment of care workers would end within months as a result of the changes, which will be fully set out in a white paper at 9.30am on Monday.
Other changes will limit skilled worker visas to graduate level jobs, with employers only given temporary access to visas for lower skilled roles where there are staff shortages and plans in place to train and recruit UK workers.
Cooper said the changes to low skilled work visas would cut arrivals by 50,000 a year and her broader plans would lead to a “substantial reduction” in net migration, but did not set a numerical target.
Net migration reached a peak of 906,000 in the year to June 2023 under the last Conservative government, but started falling after former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s administration cracked down on family and dependant visas.
This is a developing story
