Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” unless stricter immigration rules are enacted, as his government unveiled a slate of sweeping policies aimed at reducing the number of people coming to Britain.
The government intervention follows the success of the hard-right Reform party at this month’s local elections, where it gained control of 10 of the 23 councils contested and won 677 of the 1,600 council seats up for grabs.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference ahead of the publication of the government’s policy paper, Starmer vowed to “take back control of our borders,” echoing a often used by Brexit campaigners.
Estimates from the the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that net migration fell in the year to June 2024, from a high of 906,000 the year before.
Island of strangers
Starmer pledged to lower migration “significantly” by the end of this parliament, though he did not commit to a number.
“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,” he said.
“In a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
Taking aim at the previous Conservative government, he said it was “frankly incredible that net migration quadrupled in four short years to nearly one million.” He said under the policy plan, migration would come back under control and be “selective.”
Net migration to the UK was estimated at 224,000 in the year to June 2019, before falling to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 due to the pandemic, according to ONS figures.
It then rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, before increasing sharply to 634,000 in the year ending June 2022, and again to 906,000 the following year.
It now appears to be falling, with the latest estimates putting it at 728,000 in the year to June 2024.
The rise in net migration in recent years has been attributed to the war in Ukraine, British nationals arriving in the UK from Hong Kong, and an increased number of international students coming to the UK for studies, many of whom could not do so in previous years because of the pandemic.
Another factor is changes to the UK’s immigration system post-Brexit, which introduced new visas for some types of work. This has boosted the numbers coming to the UK from non-EU countries.
What are the new measures?
The policy paper includes plans to tighten English language requirements for immigrants, including testing of improvements over time.
It will also ramp up the qualifications people require to be eligible for a skilled work visa, bringing them up to the graduate level.
The government also hopes to reduce numbers by ending foreign nationals’ right to apply for settlement in the UK after five years. They will instead have to wait for 10 years.
The plan will also impact UK care homes, who rely in large part on foreign workers, as the new measures end their ability to recruit staff from abroad.
It said there will be a “transition period” until 2028 where visas can be extended and foreign nationals living in the UK can apply for social care jobs.
There are concerns this will aggravate staff shortages in the UK’s social care sector: even with international staff recruitment, care homes have struggled to fill positions, with official figures showing that there were 131,000 vacancies in social care in England alone last year.
Prof Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, described the government’s announcement as a “crushing blow to an already fragile sector,” saying that while “international recruitment wasn’t a silver bullet…it was a lifeline.”
In an effort to bring down the number of foreign students, the white paper also commits to tighten the requirements educational institutions must meet in order to recruit international students.
Graduates will only be able to remain in the UK for up to 18 months after completing their studies, reduced from two years for most students.
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