Take back control of our borders – thanks for the get-tough rhetoric Sir Keir, but we’ve heard it all before. We don’t need plagiarised ideas and words, we need immediate action.
For the most part of this century, Prime Minister after Prime Minister has promised to get a grip and crackdown down on immigration. But every single one, from Gordon Brown to Rishi Sunak, has failed to control numbers, let alone drive them down. Even Tony Blair, who opened the floodgates after sweeping to power in 1997, was stung into action as public dismay over his open door policy intensified.
So why does the current incumbent of No 10 think his new policy will be different and achieve what has been unachievable before? Sir Keir’s announcement simply confirms what this newspaper has been saying for years: uncontrolled migration has broken Britain.
More than 17 million immigrants have come to live in the UK since Mr Blair sang Auld Lang Syne with the Queen at the Millennium Dome on New Year’s Eve as the nineties turned to the noughties. Public services, schools, GP appointments and hospitals have all suffered as a result of this immigration-fuelled population surge.
If Blair’s open-door policy triggered an unsustainable net migration boom that continues today, Brexit is the moment that politicians could and should have done something to take decisive action.
David Cameron misjudged public opinion when promising an in/out Referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union.
Immigration was a defining issue of Brexit, one that the former Tory leader didn’t fully grasp despite his aspirations to cut net-migration to Thatcher-era levels of “tens of thousands”.
Theresa May carried on that mantle but despite finally leaving the EU in 2020, numbers surged under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, reaching almost one million a year.
In short, Sir Keir’s plan is to make it a bit tougher for people to come, live and settle here. Those who pitch up will have to prove their worth [and speak our language], as it dawns on ministers that living in this country is a privilege that must be earned.
The move to "back British workers over cheap overseas labour" is welcome.
But what we urgently need is a redoubling of efforts to crack down not only on those who have no right to be here, but those who abuse the system.
And surely the only way to bring down numbers and keep them there is to have a limit on arrivals. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has promised this, but she won’t say what level a cap will be.
Sir Keir's new approach comes after Labour was trounced in the local elections and lost Runcorn and Helsby to Reform UK, a party that is well known for tough talk on immigration.
If there is one political figure who has consistently held their position on immigration during the Blair-to-Starmer years it’s Nigel Farage.
His hardline approach includes freezing non-essential immigration, leaving the ECHR, stopping illegal boat crossings and deporting all foreign criminals.
Not only are these vote winning policies, as recent polls show, but it’s the kind of action and rhetoric that we haven’t had from a government in a generation.
