Sir Keir Starmer is planning a major crackdown on legal migration, as Reform is set to gain hundreds of council seats at local elections this week.
A white paper outlining the proposals is set for release in the weeks after Thursday’s vote.
They are anticipated to make it harder for foreign students on graduate visas – which allow them to stay in the UK for two years after their course – to remain here via taking less well-paid jobs, like those in healthcare.
Nigel Farage‘s Reform party is expected to see a major victory at the ballot box this week, after already streaking ahead in the two mayoral races.
It may also win the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby, Cheshire, triggered after former Labour MP Mike Amesbury was found guilty of assault after punching a man in the street.
The Prime Minister has not personally campaigned there so far – suggesting he anticipates Labour losing the seat, The Telegraph reports.
Mr Farage has visited the seat three times and will be there when constituents cast their votes. He dubbed Sir Keir’s absence – which No 10 yesterday refused to promise would change – ‘astonishing’.
Home Office sources have stressed the migration proposals have been in the works since November – and are not a reaction to expectations Labour will ‘get its head kicked in’ by Reform on Thursday, as a peer close to No 10, Lord Glasman, said.
Nigel Farage’s Reform party is expected to see a major victory at the ballot box this week, after already streaking ahead in the two mayoral races. Pictured: Farage on a walkabout in Beverley, East Yorkshire, on Friday
Sir Keir Starmer is planning a major crackdown on legal migration, as Reform is set to gain hundreds of council seats at local elections this week
Home Office sources have stressed the migration proposals have been in the works since November – and are not a reaction to expectations Labour will ‘get its head kicked in’ by Reform on Thursday, as a peer close to No 10, Lord Glasman, said. Pictured: File photo
The leader of the ‘Blue Labour’ movement campaigning for the party to become more right-wing told the Observer: ‘It’s game over if they don’t change.
‘People are losing faith in government, in the most general way, and someone has to stop that.
‘Labour must be a pro-worker, patriotic party, not talking gibberish about diversity.’
A senior union official said a ‘sizeable’ number of members, particularly those in traditionally working class areas, would vote Reform.
Party leader Mr Farage told the Mail yesterday he planned to be ‘deporter-in-chief’, taking ‘a zero tolerance policy for illegal residence’.
Delivering on Labour’s promise to cut net migration – the difference in numbers moving to and from Britain to live – has long been what Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, believes will counter Reform.
Annual net migration figures hit record highs of 906,000 in the year to June 2023 – but decreased to 728,000 last year.
Party leader Mr Farage (pictured) told the Mail yesterday he planned to be ‘deporter-in-chief’ , taking ‘a zero tolerance policy for illegal residence’
The long-awaited upcoming plans are expected to set out how to reduce this further.
A source from the Home Office said: ‘We’ve made a really strong commitment that the Home Secretary wants to reduce net migration. We will use the immigration white paper as a tool for that.’
The white paper should be published before May 19, when a summit of UK and European leaders will address their relationship.
Just days later, on May 22, new net migration figures will be released by the Office for National Statistics.
The white paper will propose that any bosses who break employment law – for example, by not paying minimum wage – will be forbidden from hiring from abroad.
It will also include a requirement to train existing workers for jobs workers on foreign visas often take.
It is also expected to address evidence recently uncovered by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, that foreign students come to the UK on graduate visas – then move on to health and social care visas, meant for healthcare professionals.
The loophole allows them to stay here for longer – but the Home Office has considered stopping this with a wage threshold for foreign graduates’ jobs.
It is also expected to address evidence recently uncovered by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (pictured), that foreign students come to the UK on graduate visas – then move on to health and social care visas, meant for healthcare professionals
But this risks outcry from the social care sector, already desperately understaffed.
Any agreement would likely not, though, be outlined in the white paper, set for publication before these talks conclude.
Sir Keir has listed economic growth as his number one priority – so debate about how a tougher stance on migration could impact that is bound to be reawakened.
His party’s first six months in government saw more enforced returns of foreign criminals and asylum seekers whose claims had failed.
The Home Office began to release images of deportation flights as a public show of taking action.
The issue of migrant accommodation will also be in voters’ minds.
Labour’s candidate for Runcorn and Helsby, Karen Shore, has previously said closing a local hotel housing asylum seekers was among her ‘priorities’.
A Labour Party spokesman declined to comment.
