Starmer says net migration will fall with 'controlled, selective and fair' system

12 May 2025, 07:59 | Updated: 12 May 2025, 17:45

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to bring down net migration by the end of this parliament with a system that is "controlled, selective and fair".

However, the prime minister has refused to say how far he wants figures to fall, only saying numbers will come down "substantially".

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Sir Keir was speaking at a news conference ahead of the publication of the government's Immigration White Paper, which sets out plans including banning care homes from hiring overseas.

The prime minister said: "Some people think controlling immigration is reining in a sort of natural freedom, rather than the basic and reasonable responsibility of the government to make choices that work for a nation's economy.

"And for years, this seems to have muddled our thinking. But let me be clear, it ends now. We will create a migration system that is controlled, selective, and fair."

He added: "Let me put it this way, nations depend on rules, fair rules.

"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."

'Chasing the tail of the right'

The prime minister's "island of strangers" rhetoric has attracted criticism from within his own party, including Labour MP Sarah Owen, who said it could put the UK on "a very dark path".

The chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee said "fair and sensible" checks on immigration "should not equal blaming all the woes of our country on immigrants".

"The best way to avoid becoming an 'island of strangers' is investing in communities to thrive - not pitting people against each other," she added.

"I've said it before and will say it again, chasing the tail of the right risks taking our country down a very dark path."

Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, also said the phrase mimicked the "scaremongering of the far-right", while former shadow chancellor John McDonnell argued it was reminiscent of the late politician Enoch Powell.

Asked if net migration would fall, Sir Keir said it would "fall substantially by the end of this parliament" - but didn't give a specific target.

He said it was not sensible "to put a hard-edged cap on it" as that has "been done in one form or another for the best part of 10 years by different prime ministers" and never worked.

However, he pledged to go "further and faster" if needed, saying record high levels of net migration over the past few years have "tested the theory" that it can lead to economic growth.

Read more:
Labour's restrictive immigration approach builds on Tory rollbacks
Farage addresses how Reform UK would deal with migration

Net migration - the difference between the number of people immigrating and emigrating to a country - soared when the UK left the EU in January 2020.

It reached 903,000 in the year to June 2023 before falling to 728,000 in mid-2024. But that is still well above its pre-Brexit high of 329,000 in the year up to June 2015.

The government is under pressure to tackle legal migration, as well as illegal immigration, amid Reform UK's surge in the polls.