U.K.’s Ruling Labour Party To Roll Out Plan To Reduce Influx of Migrant Workers as Opponents Call for Increases

With some estimates suggesting one quarter of the United Kingdom’s population will be foreign-born by 2035, Prime Minister Starmer is unveiling new rules on migrant visas intended to curb an influx that has seen the number of migrants increase four-fold since 2019. The reforms, set to be unveiled on Monday, aim to raise the graduation requirement for workers seeking to enter the country, reduce the number of unskilled workers, and train Britons in industries that are underrepresented by native-born workers. The new plan will also reorient toward migration toward “control, contribution, and community cohesion,” reads the announcement, which states that it will crackdown on the number of migrants exploiting the system and will ramp up removals of 24,000 people “with no right to be here.”“The Immigration White Paper will deliver on its manifesto pledge to cut migration by training domestic workers, raising the bar on who can come to the U.K., and ending reliance on overseas labour,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement on the plan. Britain, with a population of 69.5 million people, accepted more than 1.6 million foreign workers in the past two years, for a net migration of 1.2 million. Most have arrived legally, with 86 percent coming from non-EU nations like India, Pakistan, and Nigeria. The rapid inflow of migrants has caused tensions between local and foreign communities, including clashes over the lack of assimilation and British efforts to curtail objections to the rush of foreign-born dependents.First on the chopping block for reform are visas for care workers. The plan being proposed by the Labour Party would result in about 50,000 fewer migrants. The conservative opposition claims that’s not enough, and it wants a cap on total net migration, previously suggested as a limit below 350,000 new migrants per year, according to shadow Home Secretary Chris Philps. Mr. Starmer responded that the new policy will accomplish more than what the Conservative Party did when it had the chance. “The Tories lost control of our borders and let net migration soar to record levels, undercutting hardworking Brits. I won’t stand for it,” the prime minister posted on X on Sunday.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, discussing the reforms on Saturday, told BBC that the net migration, which surged during Tory rule, has not been good for the economy, despite predictions by the Treasury. “If that approach was right we would have seen, when we saw that soaring level of net migration, that soaring level of overseas recruitment, well surely we would have seen soaring growth alongside it and we didn’t,” she said.“Actually what we saw was the economy flatlined because by failing to invest in UK workers that also undermines productivity, it undermines the ability to get people back into the work who are currently not working,” Ms. Cooper continued. Opponents of the surge in migrants say catering to immigrants has made Britain less safe and altered British culture. They point not just to migration policy for workers, but the surge in asylum seekers. In the last week, counterterrorism police arrested nine people, including eight Iranians, in two alleged terror plots, including one aimed at the Israeli embassy. At least one of the men was an asylum seeker living in government-funded housing. Though separate from the policy of legal immigration, thousands of boats have brought so-called asylum seekers. Mr. Starmer has pledged to halt these arrivals. The announcement of new migration policy comes as polls suggest Reform Party leader Nigel Farage, whose party made massive gains in recent local council elections on the issue of deportations, could be elected the next prime minister. Last week, the Reform Party announced it was suing the government to stop it from funding asylum houses in council areas now represented by Reform politicians.“We will use every lever possible,” Mr. Tice posted on X. “The British people are raging furious with Labour & Tories on immigration.”

U.K.’s Ruling Labour Party To Roll Out Plan To Reduce Influx of Migrant Workers as Opponents Call for Increases

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