Keir Starmer’s immigration crackdown: What are Labour’s stricter new guidelines?
Sir Keir Starmer today warned that the UK risks becoming an ‘island of strangers’ as he unveiled a string of new policies aimed at controlling immigration.
The Prime Minister deployed the Brexit campaign’s ‘take back control’ slogan at a press conference in Downing Street in which he vowed to end the ‘betrayal’ of relying on cheap foreign labour.
However, doubts are already being raised about whether the rules will have a big enough impact – with the Conservatives criticising the failure to introduce an annual cap on numbers.
So what exactly are the new rules Sir Keir is proposing? And do they actually amount to a major change in migration policy?
Below, MailOnline analyses the background behind the announcement, and what the changes could mean in reality –
Sir Keir Starmer talked tough on immigration during a press conference today – but what new rules is he actually proposing?
Why is the PM promising a migration ‘crackdown’?
Today’s announcement comes less than a fortnight after Reform UK rode a wave of rising public anger on immigration to triumph in the local elections, delivering a string of damaging defeats to Labour.
Sir Keir is now scrambling to blunt the threat from Nigel Farage’s party by projecting a tough stance on the issue – and deliver lower net migration figures over the rest of the parliamentary term.
Home Office aides are said to fear that without deep-rooted reforms, annual net migration will settle even higher than the 340,000 level projected by the Office for National Statistics.
Sir Keir has accused the Tories of overseeing an explosion in numbers while in power, saying the system seemed ‘designed to permit abuse’ and was ‘contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart’.
How do the rules aim to make it harder for migrants to settle in Britain?
The new system will end automatic settlement and citizenship for anyone living here for five years, with migrants instead required to spend a decade in the UK before applying to stay.
However, workers who significantly contribute to society such as nurses, doctors and engineers could be fast-tracked.
Migrants will also be required to display a higher standard of English across all immigration routes including, for the first time, their adult dependents.
The lack of language skills among some migrants has been cited as a major factor hindering their integration into British society.
What is happening with care workers?
One of the most scrutinised element of the new rules are the changes to visa rules for care workers.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has said the dedicated care worker visa will be ended, insisting firms can no longer rely on ‘recruiting from abroad’ and would have to train British workers instead.
Officials say there will be a transition period until 2028, during which care workers already in the UK can apply to have their visas extended.
The Home Office has claimed there are 40,000 potential members of staff who were originally brought over by ‘rogue’ providers and are now able to take up jobs in the sector while homegrown workers are trained up.
Ms Cooper says that changes to care worker visas, together with returning the skills thresholds for work visas to degree level, will cut visa numbers by 50,000 a year, she suggested.
However, ministers are already facing a backlash from the care sector, with warnings it could ‘collapse’.
Will more foreign criminals now be deported?
The Home Office says it will now be notified of all offences committed by foreign criminals, rather than just those which result in prison terms, with wider powers to deport offenders and cancel visas.
They have also pledged to crack down on the use of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – which protects the right to a family life – to ‘frustrate deportation where removal is clearly in the public interest’.
Officials say they will tighten guidance to judges on the cases when Article 8 can be invoked by criminals appealing against their deportation, but what this actually amounts to remains unclear.
Alleged killer Fatmir Bleta, an Albanian, was allowed to stay in the UK after claiming deportation would breach Article 8 of the ECHR by being ‘unduly harsh’ on his wife and four children, who joined him in the UK in 2000
The measure has been used repeatedly over the last 20 years by foreign nationals to dodge deportation after committing horrific crimes in Britain – including manslaughter and rape.
The PM said he does not think it is necessary to leave the ECHR to facilitate his immigration crackdown.
What changes will affect foreign students?
Around 150,000 overseas students are granted graduate visas in the UK each year, according to estimates by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) – contributing to 10 per cent of total net migration.
At present, these visa holders can stay in the UK for two years after their course, but this time period will now be cut to 18 months.
After this period, graduates will either have to reapply and be accepted for another visa – such as a skilled worker visa – or leave the country.
The government has also said that tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students will be made stricter.
It follows concerns some students are being accepted on ‘low-quality’ one-year courses that then allow them to remain in the UK.
Today, the Confederation of British Industry claimed the reforms would have a ‘knock-on’ effect on the strength of higher education as a growth export.
Will migrants now have to have more skills?
Skills thresholds for work visas will now be returned to degree level – reversing a system that saw the proportion of lower-skilled visas issued increase between 2021 and 2024.
For occupations below this level, access to the immigration system will be strictly time-limited and based on evidence of shortages in the supply of labour.
However, a ‘limited pool’ of refugees and displaced people recognised by the United Nations’ agency responsible will be eligible to apply for jobs through existing skilled-worker routes.
The immigration skills charge, paid by firms sponsoring a migrant worker, will be hiked by 32 per cent. It currently costs large firms £1,000 to sponsor a skilled worker for the first year and £500 over each subsequent six-month period.
Do the new rules actually amount to much?
The Home Office estimates the government’s package will bring down annual inflows by around 100,000.
Sir Keir underlined his determination that the changes will mean ‘migration numbers fall’ but added: ‘If we do need to take further steps… then mark my words we will.’
However, he refused to guarantee that net migration will fall every year from now, saying: ‘I do want to get it down by the end of this Parliament significantly.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (pictured at an event in Essex on Friday) has called for a ‘legally binding’ immigration cap
Estimated net migration to the UK stood at a provisional total of 728,000 in the year to June 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Some 1,207,000 people were estimated to have immigrated to the UK during these 12 months, while 479,000 were estimated to have emigrated, making a net migration figure of 728,000.
This is down 20 per cent from a record 906,000 in the previous 12 months for the year to June 2023.
Sir Keir’s critics, including Reform UK’s Richard Tice, have called for him to introduce a specific cap on numbers.
‘There’s no target, no number that can be measured against,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
The Conservatives have said the PM is ‘trying to take credit for recent substantial reductions in visa numbers that resulted from Conservative reforms in April 2024’.
