Sir Keir Starmer has 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.
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00:00Today this Labour government is shutting down the lab. The experiment is over.
00:06We will deliver what you've asked for time and again and we will take back control of our borders.
00:15And let me tell you why. Because I know on a day like today people who like politics
00:24will try to make this all about politics, about this or that strategy, targeting these voters,
00:32responding to that party. No, I'm doing this because it is right, because it is fair and because it is
00:45what I believe in. Let me put it this way. Nations depend on rules, fair rules.
00:53Sometimes they're written down, often they're not. But either way they give shape to our values,
01:02guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe
01:10to each other. Now in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more
01:19important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward
01:27together. So when you have an immigration system that seems almost designed to permit abuse,
01:35that encourages some businesses to bring in lower paid workers rather than invest in our young people,
01:43or simply one that is sold by politicians to the British people on an entirely false premise,
01:50then you're not championing growth, you're not championing justice, or however else people defend
01:57the status quo. You're actually contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart.
02:03So yes, I believe in this. I believe we need to reduce immigration significantly.
02:14That's why some of the policies in this white paper go back nearly three years.
02:20Why I told the Labour Party conference, taking back control is a Labour argument.
02:26And why most importantly of all, inward migration is already falling with this government.
02:35It's about fairness. And look, I mean, migration is part of Britain's national story.
02:43We talked last week about the great rebuilding of this country after the war. Migrants were part of that.
02:52And they make a massive contribution today. And you will never hear me denigrate that.
02:59But when people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language.
03:07And our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don't.
03:13I think that's fair. Equally, Britain must compete for the best talent in the world.
03:22In science, in technology, in healthcare. You can't simply pull up a drawbridge, let nobody in,
03:29and think that's an economy that would work.