UK’S KEIR STARMER UNVEILS IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN; PROMISES TOUGHER VISA RULES

Mon 12 May 2025:

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised to “tighten up every area of the immigration system” as he unveiled the Government’s crackdown on immigration.

The prime minister set out Labour’s sweeping plan to cut UK net migration at a press conference on Monday morning, The Standard reported.

As part of the plan, foreign workers will face harsher visa restrictions and it will be made more difficult for firms to hire from abroad without first investing in training in Britain.

Migrants will be told they need to spend up to a decade in the UK before they can apply for citizenship and English language requirements will be increased as part of the crackdown.

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Starmer said without controls on immigration “we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together”.

He added, “Migration is part of Britain’s national story. We talked last week about the great rebuilding of this country after the war.”

“Migrants were a part of that, and they bring massive contributions today, and you will never hear me denigrate that,” he said.

“But when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration,” he added.

Starmer said “enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall” as a result of the policies in the Immigration White Paper.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary has been warned that plans to stop overseas recruitment for care worker visas are “cruel” , and the head of a nursing union is expected to accuse the Government of “pandering and scapegoating” with the policy.

Yvette Cooper said on Sunday that the overseas recruitment for care worker visas will be stopped, as part of plans to reduce “lower-skilled” visas by “up to 50,000” in the next year.

Under the white paper proposals, 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.

Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.

Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning that they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.

Meanwhile skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.

Ministers are looking to bring down net migration figures, which stood at 728,000 in the year to mid-2024.

Cooper told Sky News On Sunday that “we will be closing the care worker visa for overseas recruitment”.

Under current rules, to qualify for a care worker visa a person must have a certificate of sponsorship from their employer with information about the role they have been offered in the UK.

The Home Secretary told the BBC the rules around the system will change to “prevent” it being used “to recruit from abroad” but “we will allow them to continue to extend visas and also to recruit from more than 10,000 people who came on a care worker visa, where the sponsorship visa was cancelled”.

The head of a nursing union is expected to criticise the decision in a keynote speech on Monday.

Prof Nicola Ranger, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing will tell its annual congress that the Government’s plans are about “pandering and scapegoating”.

“The UK is so reliant on overseas colleagues, especially in social care,” she will say, adding, “The Government has no plan to grow a domestic workforce.”

“This is about politics – pandering and scapegoating,” she will say, adding, “It should be about people. We need an immigration system that works for care staff, nurses and the people who rely on them.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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