Starmer has been criticised for imitating Nigel Farage and Enoch Powell in his immigration speech today
Labour’s white paper, ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ was published today. Keir Starmer gave a speech in Downing Street this morning, which has come in for heavy criticism from backbench MPs, charities and unions.
First, here’s a summary of the changes included in the speech:
- The government is planning to double the waiting period for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five years to 10 years.
- Exceptions could be made for “high-contributing” professionals such as doctors and nurses, who could be allowed to apply for settled status after five years.
- The social care visa, which existed to recruit care workers from abroad to fill the shortage, will be scrapped by the end of the year. The government has said this is part of a “crackdown” on visas for lower-skilled workers.
- All visa routes will require people to have a certain level of English proficiency. To extend visas, people will have to show progression in their English.
- People applying for a UK skilled worker visa now need at least an undergraduate degree. The minimum was previously A-levels.
- The government plans to tighten how Article 8 of the Human Rights Act is used in immigration cases. They will reduce the number of asylum seekers avoiding deportation by citing the “right to family life” and have said that decisions on who can stay should rest with parliament.
‘Inspired’ by Enoch Powell and Nigel Farage?
In his speech, Starmer said Labour would “take back our borders” and warned that Britain will become an “island of strangers” without tighter immigration controls.
The “island of strangers” remark has been strongly criticised for echoing Enoch Powell’s dangerous Rivers of Blood speech.
In Powell’s 1968 speech, he said of British people: “’They found themselves made strangers in their own country” as a result of mass migration, particularly from Commonwealth countries.
Independent MP Zarah Sultana called the reference “sickening” in a post on X, accusing Starmer of mimicking Powell’s rhetoric.
She said: “That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk.
“Shame on you, Keir Starmer.”
Labour backbencher Nadia Whittome also called out Starmer’s comments, stating: “Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family.
“To suggest that Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers” because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far-right.”
Playing into the right-wing media’s prejudices
Fran Heathcote, the general secretary of the public and commercial services (PCS) union said Starmer does “not need to follow Reform down the migrant-bashing road”.
“Scapegoating migrants is shameful politics that plays to the right-wing media’s prejudices rather than resolving this country’s problems of low pay and insufficient housing,” she said.
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer, said on X: “When will @Keir_Starmer learn that no matter how good his Nigel Farage impression gets, it won’t save him from wipeout at the hands of Reform?”.
You can copy the right, but you can’t out-do them on migration
Despite Starmer’s rhetoric about “cracking down” on migration, it’s (unsurprisingly) not hardline enough for the right.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said that Starmer’s plans “will not got far enough” and said the Conservatives want a binding annual cap on migration.
Nigel Farage has said he doesn’t think anything Starmer said today will result in migration numbers dropping significantly.
Farage also called for a cap on migration, but when interviewed by Sky News’ Sam Coates, he was unable to specify what number he would set.
Pressed on this, Farage grew frustrated and retorted: “You ask me in four years time, alright? Ask me in four years’ time.
“You can play whatever silly games you want right now but the fact is nothing there is nothing that has been said today that I think is genuinely going to be followed through with vigour and lead to levels of immigration going back to historic levels.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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