The publication of the 69-page white paper entitled Restoring Control Over the Immigration System on Monday marks a notable departure for Keir Starmer’s government as it attempts to combat Reform UK’s surge in the polls.
Its package of changes is meant to rebuild a link between the immigration system and the labour market, and to ensure that homegrown workers have enough skills so that overseas workers are not needed to fill posts.
It will challenge a central tenet of Labour’s economic policies for decades: that immigration is broadly good because it helps the economy to grow.
Government insiders say that the “failed free-market experiment” of allowing overseas workers to freely enter the UK has been a major factor in generating political chaos over the past decade.
In his insistence that foreign workers should learn “our language”, Keir Starmer appears to have adopted elements of the populist language once closely associated with Nigel Farage.
It is the kind of language that generated criticism from Labour politicians when used by the Reform UK leader more than a decade ago.
Then, as Ukip leader, Nigel Farage said parts of the UK had become unrecognisable due to the impact of mass migration and said he felt “awkward” on a train journey in central London when he heard only foreign languages spoken by fellow passengers.
“I wonder what’s really going on,” Farage told Ukip’s spring conference in 2014. “That does not mean one is anti-immigration. We’re not anti-immigration, we want immigration, but we do absolutely believe we should be able to judge it both on quantity and quality.”
Eleven years later, and Starmer appears to have moved towards Farage’s policy suggestions and adopted elements of his rhetorical style. The prime minister will announce on Monday “an end to Britain’s failed experiment in open borders that saw migration soar to 1 million a year”.
When people come to “our” country, they should “commit to integration”, he will say, calling for the government to “take control”.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control. Enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall,” he will say.
Past party leaders have attempted to adopt a muscular attitude towards ensuring that the international jobs market did not undercut domestic workers.
As prime minister, Gordon Brown was criticised by his own backbenchers and the then opposition leader, David Cameron, for being “protectionist” after adopting the phrase “British jobs for British workers”.
Ed Miliband was condemned for pandering to “the lowest common denominator” after releasing a branded mug calling for “controls on immigration”.
The government is now facing a backlash over its plans to end overseas recruitment for care workers.
On Sunday Christina McAnea, general secretary of the Unison union, said the “NHS and the care sector would have collapsed long ago without the thousands of workers who’ve come to the UK from overseas”.
It demonstrates that the government will be forced to face down many critics, some of whom are Labour-supporting unions, as it seeks to change the narrative on immigration.
