UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to “finally take back control of our borders”, warning that the country is at risk of becoming “an island of strangers” without significant immigration reform.
Speaking at a press conference in London on Monday to unveil the government’s new Immigration White Paper, the Labour leader said that “nations depend on rules” and that the current system has allowed “chaos” to replace control.
“This strategy will finally take back control of our borders and close the book on a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country,” he said.
Starmer accused the previous Conservative government of running an “experiment in open borders” despite promising to reduce immigration.
“Between 2019 and 2023, even as they were going around our country telling people, with a straight face, they would get immigration down, net migration quadrupled,” he said. “Until in 2023, it reached nearly 1 million, which is about the population of Birmingham, our second largest city. That’s not control – it’s chaos.”
He went on to claim the spike in migration was not accidental.
“I don’t think you can do something like that by accident,” he said. “It was a choice…a one-nation experiment in open borders conducted on a country that voted for control.”
Explaining the philosophical basis for the reforms, Starmer said the country’s values were being undermined by the absence of clear boundaries.
“Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers,” he said. “Not a nation that walks forward together.”
The Prime Minister said that the new plan is about “fairness” and that migrants should commit to integration by learning English and contributing to society.
“When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language,” he said. “And our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don’t.”
Starmer also insisted the system must continue to allow Britain to attract top global talent, while tackling abuses.
“You cannot simply pull up a drawbridge, let nobody in, and think that is an economy that would work,” he said. “But at the same time, we do have to ask why parts of our economy seem almost addicted to importing cheap labour rather than investing in the skills of people who are here.”
He pointed to engineering as an example, citing a rise in visas despite a fall in apprenticeships.
“Is that fair to Britain?” he asked. “Is it fair to young people weighing up their future to miss out on those apprenticeships, to see colleges in their community almost entirely dedicated to one-year courses for overseas students? No, I don’t think it is.”
The White Paper includes a range of reforms aimed at reducing immigration and tightening visa routes:
Starmer pledged that immigration levels will fall as a result of these policies.
“Make no mistake – this plan means migration will fall,” he said. “That’s a promise.”
He said the reforms are not about numbers alone, but about changing the nature of immigration to favour skilled and economically beneficial migrants.
“We will finally honour what ‘take back control’ meant and begin to choose who comes here so that migration works for our national interest,” he said.
The Prime Minister also argued that the reforms will force employers to invest in training British workers.
“We will create a migration system that is controlled, selective, and fair,” he said.
“A clean break with the past that links access to visas directly to investment in homegrown skills.”
While Starmer did not specify a target for overall migration levels, he said the aim is to bring about “lower net migration, higher skills, \[and] backing British workers.”
The announcement follows a record high in net migration in 2023, and comes amid mounting political pressure to overhaul the UK’s immigration system. The new proposals will be subject to consultation and parliamentary scrutiny before being introduced.