UK must wean itself off migrant labour, says Keir Starmer

Opposition leader to tell business chiefs the days of low pay and dependence on foreign workers are over

Rachel Reeves, Sir Keir Starmer, Labour Party
Sir Keir Starmer with Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor Credit: John Lawrence for The Telegraph

Britain must end its economic dependence on immigration, Sir Keir Starmer will say on Tuesday as he toughens the Labour Party’s stance in a speech to business leaders.

In a significant intervention, the opposition leader is set to tell the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference that the days of “low pay and cheap labour” are over.

The speech will be seen as an attempt to quash any suggestion that the Labour leader would emulate Sir Tony Blair’s looser approach to immigration if he reaches Downing Street.

Sir Keir is trying to convince voters at the next election that he has reconciled to Britain’s future outside of the European Union as he targets winning back Red Wall constituents who voted en masse for Brexit. 

Sir Keir Starmer, Labour Party, immigration
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to get a grip on immigration if elected as prime minister Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

He will tell business leaders: “I want to be clear here: with my Labour government, any movement in our point-based migration system, whether via the skilled occupation route, or the shortage worker list, will come with new conditions for business.

“We will expect you to bring forward a clear plan for higher skills and more training, for better pay and conditions, for investment in new technology.

“But our common goal must be to help the British economy off its immigration dependency. To start investing more in training up workers who are already here.”

He will add: “Migration is part of our national story – always has been, always will be. And the Labour Party will never diminish the contribution it makes to the economy, to public services, to your businesses and our communities.

“But let me tell you, the days when low pay and cheap labour are part of the British way on growth must end.”

Labour’s plan for government is coming under increasing scrutiny after the party opened up a poll lead over the Conservatives of more than 20 percentage points, leaving it favourites to win the next election, which is expected in 2024.

Sir Keir has been attempting to address areas where Labour is perceived to have become out of step with the wider public under Jeremy Corbyn, including on migration.

The Labour leader favours an Australian-style points-based immigration system, as demanded by Brexiteers during the 2016 referendum and has since been implemented by the Tories.

He also wants to give the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body which assesses labour shortages in the economy and gives policy recommendations, a greater role in decision making, including responding more quickly to economic changes.

The message echoes that adopted by successive Tory prime ministers, including Boris Johnson and now Rishi Sunak, who argued that training up Britons to fill skills shortages would be more advantageous than increasing visas for overseas workers.

However, Sir Keir has so far declined to call for the overall immigration figures to be brought down – something which the Tories promised in their 2019 election manifesto and which the Prime Minister repeated support for during his trip to the recent G20 summit in Bali.

Last week, the Office for Budget Responsibility said that annual net migration would remain above 200,000 for the years to come.

David Cameron had pledged to get net migration below 100,000 during his premiership, but repeatedly failed to hit the target. It later became a point of attack for his Tory critics.

On Monday, Mr Sunak declined to go into detail about his overall approach to legal migration when asked at the CBI conference, instead saying that his focus would be on tackling illegal small boat crossings in the English Channel.

The Prime Minister also told the conference that Britain needed to embrace automation and robotics in order to boost productivity and drive growth. 

Tony Danker, the director general of the CBI, urged government ministers to relax immigration rules to boost growth and fill vacancies.

“We don’t have the people we need,” he said. “We don’t have enough Britons to go around.” 

Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves
In a recent poll, Labour opened up a lead over the Conservatives of more than 20 percentage points Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

However, Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, rejected the call, insisting that net migration should fall.

Immigration into the UK soared in the early 2000s under Sir Tony after he declined to impose initial restrictions on migration from Eastern European countries that had just joined the EU.

The decision became a point of heated political debate. Opposition to free movement – the right for EU citizens to move elsewhere in the bloc – became a central argument made by the Brexit campaign during the 2016 referendum.

Sir Keir supported remaining in the EU at the time and played a key role in the push for a second referendum as Labour’s shadow Brexit spokesman.

But since winning the party leadership after Labour’s 2019 election defeat, he has vowed to accept the referendum result and focus on making it work, as he attempts to win back Brexit-supporting former Labour constituencies in the Midlands and the North East.

In July, he promised there would not be a return to EU-era “free movement” under his plan to “make Brexit work”. 

Earlier this month, he said that the NHS was hiring too many foreign staff and argued immigration was not the solution to the health service’s staffing crisis.

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