Keir Starmer has today outlined new steps to tackle net immigration into the United Kingdom, with the government announcing that they will be publishing a White Paper later today.
Cutting the number of visas for lower-skilled workers by up to 50,000 is one of the stated measures of the document, while changes in visas for international students and a restriction in the recruitment of care workers from abroad have also been announced.
The steps outlined in the White Paper will be targeting changes to work and study visas, but other areas that will be examined include the time it takes to achieve “settled status” and English language requirements.
In a speech early today, the Prime Minister stated, “make no mistake, this plan means migration will fall, that’s a promise.” Starmer also said that “areas of the immigration system such as work, family and study will be tightened up, so we have more control. If the government do need to take further steps to release pressure on housing and public services, then mark my words, we will”.
One major change is the time immigrants will have to live in the UK before they can apply for the right to stay indefinitely – this will be doubled from five to ten years, but there will be a faster route for “high-skilled” people. This change would benefit people like Faridullah Khan, an engineer in working across Huddersfield and Leeds. Khan hopes that his high-skilled job means that he will be able to stay indefinitely in the UK. He says that “cutting immigration has many impacts on the country, firstly that there is a labour shortage, which is already taking place”. He also stated that” because of the rising age of the UK, when those aging people retire there will be a huge gap that immigrants can fill.”
Faisal Sattar, who works as a security guard in Bradford, agrees, saying “skilled work should be encouraged.” He also welcomes changes to English language requirements for all work visas, saying that “life is very difficult to get around if you can’t speak basic English. At least then you can communicate which helps to get a job and you are not dependent on others.”
Other changes include a cut in the time that graduates can remain in the UK after finishing their studies from two years to 18 months, and a threshold reversal from A-Level to degree level for skilled work visas.
Net migration is the number of people who arrive in the country minus the number who leave. According to the Office for National Statistics, this figure stood at 728,000 last year but was at over 900,000 in the year to June 2023.
Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/may/12/immigration-keir-starmer-labour-reform-visa-foreign-workers-uk-politics-latest-live-news