Starmer Plans Migrant Cuts to Fight Reform

Sir Keir Starmer will unveil a crackdown on immigration after this week’s local elections when Reform is expected to seize hundreds of seats.

A white paper revealing the Government’s plans to bring down legal migration is due to be unveiled in the weeks following the voting on May 1.

It is expected to make it harder for foreign students who come to the UK on graduate visas to stay in the country through taking low-paid jobs such as healthcare roles.

Reform, the Right-wing party led by Nigel Farage, is expected to take hundreds of council seats on Thursday and is ahead in the race for two mayoralties.

The party could also win the Runcorn and Helsby by-election, taking the seat from Labour. Sir Keir has not personally campaigned there yet, in a sign he is bracing for defeat.

His absence was branded “astonishing” by Mr Farage, who has visited three times and will be there on voting day.

Home Office insiders insisted the migration plans had been in progress since November, rather than being a knee-jerk reaction to what is expected to be a bruising local election for Labour.

But disquiet within the party over its campaign strategy is already emerging, with one peer close to No 10, Lord Glasman, predicting over the weekend that Labour would “get its head kicked in” by Reform at the locals.

Lord Glasman, who heads up the “Blue Labour” movement which wants the party to move to the Right, told The Observer: “It’s game over if they don’t change. People are losing faith in government, in the most general way, and someone has to stop that. Labour must be a pro-worker, patriotic party, not talking gibberish about diversity.”

Meanwhile, a senior trade union figure told The Telegraph that a “sizeable” chunk of its members would vote Reform at the election, especially in traditional working class communities.

Reform is topping nationwide polling on 25 per cent, approaching double the 14 per cent it achieved at the July general election. Labour is trailing on 23 per cent and the Tories are on 21 per cent.

Mr Farage has taken a hard line on immigration on the campaign trail, vowing to be “deporter-in-chief” of illegal migrants.

Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s influential chief of staff, has long believed that delivering on Labour’s promise to bring down net migration is key in countering Reform’s appeal.

Annual net migration – the difference between those moving to and from the UK to live – hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, coming down to 728,000 the following year.

The long-awaited blueprint on reforming the legal migration system is expected to outline a goal to reduce that number even further.

A Home Office source said: “We’ve made a really strong commitment that the Home Secretary wants to reduce net migration. We will use the immigration white paper as a tool for that.”

The white paper is expected to be published before May 19, when a summit between UK and European Union leaders resetting their relationship takes place. The Office for National Statistics will publish its latest net migration numbers on May 22.

It will include a promise that bosses who break employment law, such as by not paying minimum wage, will be banned from hiring workers abroad.

Existing workforces will also be required to train for roles often taken by workers on foreign visas.

Another area where action is expected is on graduate visas. Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has uncovered evidence that scores of foreign students who come to Britain on graduate visas then move across to health and social care visas, allowing them to remain in the UK for longer.

Home Office officials have explored closing this loophole by setting a wage threshold for the types of jobs to which foreign graduates can switch.

However, a crackdown could bring criticism from the social care sector, which already has a shortage of workers.

There is a growing expectation that the UK and EU will strike a deal to allow younger people to move more freely between the two, but any deal is not expected to be detailed in the white paper, which is due to be published before those negotiations conclude.

Tougher rules on migration are likely to renew the debate about any knock-on impact on economic growth, which Sir Keir has named as his top priority for office.

Labour increased enforced returns of failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals in its first six months in government.

The Home Office also started releasing photographs of deportation flights to communicate to the public that action was being taken.

Accommodation for migrants is another issue being discussed on the doorstep.

Karen Shore, Labour’s candidate in Runcorn and Helsby, previously said that closing the local asylum hotel was one of her “priorities”.

On Sunday, No 10 declined to promise that Sir Keir would visit the seat this week before voting took place.

The approach is a break with his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, who as prime minister often campaigned in by-elections even when the Conservatives were facing the prospect of defeat.

Mr Farage told The Telegraph: “I find it astonishing that the PM hasn’t turned up at the first by-election of the parliament. To us, it is an indication that Labour intelligence says they’re not going to win.”

A Labour Party spokesman declined to comment.