Starmer to pledge ‘every area’ of immigration system ‘tightened up’
Sir Keir Starmer will pledge that “every area” of the immigration system will be “tightened up” as he unveils a raft of new reforms.
Migrants will be told they need to spend a decade in the UK before they can apply for citizenship and English language requirements will be increased for all routes into the UK, as ministers look to bring down net migration which reached 728,000 last year.
The Prime Minister will say that “enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall” as a result of the policies in the Immigration White Paper, set to be unveiled on Monday.
Restrictions
Under the plans, skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
Meanwhile, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Sunday that the care worker visa would be closed for overseas recruitment.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” the Prime Minister is expected to say on Monday.
“Enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall.”
He is expected to say that the system under the reforms will be “controlled, selective and fair”, and will recognise “those who genuinely contribute to Britain’s growth and society, while restoring common sense and control to our borders”.
“This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right,” he will say.
“And when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language.”
Proposals
The proposals in the white paper will mean that 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.
English language requirements will be increased, and also extended to adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic grasp of English.
Officials hope this will help people integrate and be able to find employment.
However despite the changes, ministers will not be putting a target figure on net migration numbers.
Ms Cooper told Sky News that doing so left previous governments with “broken promises”.
“We’re not going to take that really failed approach, because I think what we need to do is rebuild credibility and trust in the whole system,” she added.
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Funny how his epiphany on immigration has arrived shortly after a drubbing from Reform in the local elections. Still, it took a Supreme Court ruling to help him understand that humans can change sex, so I suppose the fact that he’s worked this out all on his own is progress of a sort. Of course he’s lying as usual: he doesn’t actually believe any of his own guff; he’s just saying what he thinks you want to hear whilst doing the exact opposite.
In fairness, these changes would have taken several months to have prepared and passed through various civil service, ministerial and cabinet level approvals/discussions. And, forgive me if I’m wrong, many were in their 2024 manifesto. One of the key issues they haven’t yet addressed is their promise to upskill UK workers in areas we have shortages – which isn’t going to be so easy!
Labour have form here. They successfully got net migration under control in the early 2000s only for it to spiral again once the Cons took back control. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise that libertarians are happy to fling open the door in an effort to shrink government.
Where Labour are going to fall over is the small boats because that can only be fixed by working with the EU to centralise asylum. We know this works because there were no small boat crossings in 2016.
Pillow government, consensual cruelty from damaged individuals…
Nurse exodus after Brexit led to 1,400 NHS deaths, study finds | Nursing Times
We didn’t need a report to notice the loss of the Spanish nurses from our hospitals but it’s better to have it in writing. Doctors and nurses exempt as that would spoil the recruitment jollies abroad. The best for anyone old enough to have been round hospitals in the 70s and 80s were the West Indian enrolled nurses. Taking nurse training into universities was the worst move and we knew it at the time.
The 3 main Political Parties of THE VERY DISUNITED KINGDOM that is Labour Tories and Reform are all trying to see who can move to the far right to appease the ENGLISH voters if there was a time to leave this Union its now with all this going on
The word “union” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there