The British government promised to sharpen the migration rules on Monday and make it more difficult for newcomers to stay permanent in the country, in a sign of increasing political pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to reduce the number of immigration.
According to the plans, Visa would be reduced for a few lower -skilled employees, the language requirements for increased immigrants and the time that most newcomers need to be eligible for citizenship or the right to remain permanent, would double for five years to 10.
In a speech from Downing Street, Mr. Starmer, who leads the government party, accused his predecessors to make immigration out of hand and effectively create an experiment with open borders.
“Today this Labor government closes the laboratory. The experiment is over. We take control of our limits back,” he said, the slogan taken over by Pro-Brexit campaigners used prior to the referendum of Great Britain on leaving the European Union in 2016.
The measures announced on that Monday only relate to legal immigration. Previous conservative leaders promised to reduce immigration to specific goals, starting with Prime Minister David Cameron, who promised notoriously to get net migration from hundreds of thousands a year to the “tens of thousands‘A policy that he never delivered and that became a political liability for his party.
In part as a result, Mr. Starmer’s plan does not contain any concrete goals for the number of legal immigrants that may be allowed every year, instead opt for a broad promise.
“Make no mistake, this plan means that migration will fall, that is a promise,” Mr Starmer said from Downing Street, adding that as ministers should take further steps to give pressure on housing and public services, then “mark my words, we will do that.”
The occurrence contains some risks for the government at a time when the economy lines flat, cracks are visible in the care system for the elderly and some employers complain about labor shortages. But Mr Starmer rejected the argument that by definition large -scale immigration promoted economic growth.
His hardening attitude reflects how migration is again a hot-button issue in Great Britain. Earlier this month, Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-immigration reform of the British party, achieved a considerable victory in regional and mayor elections-what a major setback marked for Mr. Starmer’s Labor party and the opposition conservatives.
Immigration was a major theme during the 2016 referendum in which 52 percent of the British voted for Brexit. Some of the greatest proponents for Brexit, including Boris Johnson and Mr. Farage, promised “to take control” of migration policy as Great Britain left the European Union.
But after Brexit, under the leadership of Mr Johnson of Mr. Johnson as Prime Minister, the annual net migration tripled, with more than 900,000 a year ending on June 2023.
At the same time, arrivals from asylum seekers from France have increased on small, often non -unable boats and Mr Farage has capitalized in both issues.
Mr. Starmer’s critics claim that he is not going far enough and notice that due to limitations that the last government have at the end of his time, it is expected that it will fall. Reform UK does not want to freeze -essential immigration and the conservatives request a binding annual ceiling.
But the conservatives, which were thrown out of power after 14 years last year, have a difficult report to defend. Successive conservative governments promised to reduce net immigration to less than 100,000 a year, but eventually ended for the net migration numbers nine times That level.
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