- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to crack down on immigration, calling previous policies "an experiment in open borders" that led to migration quadrupling over four years.
- The proposed 82-page policy includes increasing skilled worker visa thresholds, abolishing the immigration salary list, ending overseas recruitment for social care workers, and extending the citizenship qualification period from five to 10 years.
- Starmer justified the restrictions by arguing that the current system "permits abuse" and disadvantages British workers, stating that reducing immigration is necessary to prevent the U.K. from becoming "an island of strangers."
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday announced a new policy that aims to slow the number of migrants in the U.K., after the number quadrupled over the past four years.
Starmer was elected to serve as prime minister in 2024, and during his remarks, he criticized the previous conservative administrations, spanning 2019-2024, for the severe increase in inward migration to the country.
He called their migration policies “a one-nation experiment in open borders conducted on a country that voted for control.”
“Well, no more,” Starmer said. “Today, this Labour government is shutting down the lab. The experiment is over. We will deliver what you’ve asked for time and again, and we will take back our borders.”
The announcement comes nearly four months into the Trump administration’s attempts to curb the nation’s own high inward migration rate. In the U.S., The New York Times reported the Biden administration oversaw net in-migration of 8 million people over four years.
In 2025 so far, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reported over 71,000 removals.
In the U.K., at its highest recorded level, inward migration reached nearly 1 million people per year. “That‘s about the population of Birmingham, our second largest city,” Starmer said. “That‘s not control; it’s chaos.”
How will the U.K. crack down on immigration?
Outlined in an 82-page document released Monday afternoon, the Home secretary laid out a plan to restrict inward migration to the country.
In response to a decision from 2020, which reduced the requirement threshold for workers seeking a visa, the document proposes “increasing the threshold for skilled worker visas to graduate level” to “reduce lower-skilled migration.”
Next, it proposes abolishing the immigration salary list, which made it easier for migrants to get a visa for low-paying jobs.
Under this proposed policy, the U.K. would also “end overseas recruitment for social care visas,” which were given to care workers, home carers and senior care workers. During a three-year transition period, the white papers added that the U.K. “will permit visa extensions and in-country switching for those already in the country with working rights, but this will be kept under review.”
Further, Starmer’s administration proposed increasing the length of time needed for migrants to qualify for citizenship or the right to stay permanently from five years to 10 years.
Other newly proposed changes include the government increasing English language requirements across every main immigration route.
Generating much conversation on X, Starmer wrote Monday morning in a post, “If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English. That‘s common sense.”
Starmer on why immigration restrictions are necessary
“Nations depend on rules — fair rules — sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values, guide us to our rights," Starmer said.
He continued, “In a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
The prime minister then described the current immigration system as one that “seems almost designed to permit abuse” and one that encourages businesses to employ foreign-born workers over young British people.
Unemployment among British citizens has increased in the past five years, per the House of Commons Library, and Starmer’s proposed plan promises to look into “the underlying causes of these trends, whether it be lack of opportunities, training or poor working conditions.”
Starmer added that when a nation’s immigration system hurts its own citizens, politicians defending it are “actually contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart.”
“So, yes, I believe in this. I believe we need to reduce immigration significantly,” Starmer said.