The Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has pledged to reduce immigration into the United Kingdom ahead of the July 4th general election in the UK. However, the left-wing party is refusing to commit to a specific immigration target. This marks a break from the traditional Labour stance that favoured mass migration.
In an interview with The Sun on Sunday, Starmer quoted former US President George H W Bush’s infamous 1988 “read my lips” promise not to raise taxes, a pledge which contributed to his political downfall after he walked back on the commitment. Sir Keir declared, “Read my lips — I will bring immigration numbers down. If you trust me with the keys to No10 I will make you this promise: I will control our borders and make sure British businesses are helped to hire Brits first.
Starmer vowed that his government would implement policies such as requiring sectors applying for foreign workers to train Britons to do the jobs first, thereby reducing the number of people on welfare benefits. He also stated that his administration would ban “bad bosses” — those who fail to meet minimum wage requirements — from hiring foreign workers.
However, despite Starmer’s vow to reduce migration, the Labour Party is refusing to make a firm commitment on the number of migrants it would allow per year.
The Conservatives have committed to cutting net immigration to the “tens of thousands” in their 2010, 2015, and 2017 election manifestos, and vowed that immigration would “come down” in their 2019 manifesto. However, such commitments were never fulfilled, with net migration hitting an all-time high of 764,000 in 2022.
The failures of the Conservatives to deliver on the promises to reduce immigration have left an opening for Starmer, but many question whether his commitment to reducing migration is genuine given his history of advocating for mass migration and his signing of a 2020 letter demanding the government not deport 50 criminals to Jamaica.