Analysis
Starmer
faces opposition from Labour MPs and employers over immigration shift
Pippa Crerar
Political
editor
Some
backbenchers already thought PM had moved too far right on issue but aides say
aim is to make system ‘fairer’
Mon 12 May
2025 20.15 BST
“We must
never accept the Tory or media narrative that often scapegoats and demonises
migrants,” Keir Starmer wrote in 2020. “Problems of low pay, housing and public
services are not caused by migrants – they are caused by a failed economic
model.”
Much has
changed since Starmer was running to be leader of the Labour party – not least,
that as prime minister he now has a broader electorate to keep on side.
His aides
argue he has long made the case for tougher rules on immigration, but the rise
of Reform UK, and Nigel Farage’s success among voters disillusioned with the
political mainstream, has added a new political imperative.
Announcing
his new immigration policies on Monday, Starmer warned that the UK risked
becoming an “island of strangers” without a tougher approach, and said the
government would “take back control of our borders” and close the book on a
“squalid chapter” of rising inward migration.
For those
who believe that he has already pitched too far to the right in response to the
rise in support for Reform UK, his rhetoric on immigration will bite.
Sarah Owen,
the Labour MP for Luton North who is on the soft left of the party, said the
best way to avoid the UK becoming an “island of strangers” was to invest in
communities so that they thrived.
“I’ve said
it before and will say it again: chasing the tail of the right risks taking our
country down a very dark path,” she warned, urging the government not to risk
pitting people against each other.
Nadia
Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, said: “The step-up in anti-migrant
rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.
“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.”
Others went
further. Zarah Sultana, an independent MP since she was suspended from Labour
for voting to scrap the two-child benefit cap, accused Starmer of imitating
Enoch Powell’s infamous “rivers of blood” speech.
Downing
Street insiders, however, reject the criticism, insisting the prime minister
understands that immigration is part of Britain’s national story, but that he
believes more control is needed and there should be higher expectations for
people arriving in the UK to integrate.
Aides point
to focus groups which show that voters worry about the scale of net migration –
which soared to more than 900,000 under the previous Conservative government –
and the impact on community cohesion in particular.
“The truth
is that people are really concerned with high levels of immigration and we want
to make the system fairer,” a No 10 source said. The issue is particularly
salient among Labour voters who have shifted to Reform.
Labour aides
say the government is motivated by how the public feels about immigration. But
they also know their electoral fate depends, in part, on whether they can bring
numbers dramatically down. Net migration was 728,000 in the 12 months to June
2024.
Official
estimates by the Home Office show that under the new immigration approach,
there could be 100,000 fewer people entering the UK every year. The projections
suggest net migration could fall as low as 300,000 by 2029.
Starmer,
however, has avoided chasing what he has described as “arbitrary, unenforceable
and unachievable” targets. But he does not only have to make the case for
driving down the numbers to those on the left.
He also has
to convince employers who are arguing that immigration policy is preventing
businesses from accessing critical skills to deliver investment, putting jobs
and growth at risk.
Rachel
Reeves is on hand to help. On a trip to Washington in May 2023, she made a
speech setting out a British version of Bidenomics, echoing the former US
president’s language on economic nationalism.
Since then,
Reeves – now the chancellor – has repeatedly focused on the need for businesses
to invest in the domestic workforce, rather than relying on cheap labour from
abroad.
On Monday,
Starmer explicitly made the case that higher levels of immigration –
particularly by low-skilled workers – were not in fact contributing to economic
growth. “That link doesn’t hold,” he told reporters.
No 10
officials are expected to ask the Office for Budget Responsibility, which now
regards migration as a net positive to the economy over a five-year period, to
look again at how it reaches its conclusions.
“Their calculations don’t take the longer term costs to communities into account, when people start ageing and relying on the state more,” one said. “We’re all taking immigration and its impact on the economy seriously.
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