UK politics live: Starmer warned he is ‘laying the groundwork for Farage’ after immigration speech

A Labour MP has warned Sir Keir Starmer is “laying the groundwork for Nigel Farage” with his language on migration on Monday.

Speaking to The Independent, Clive Lewis said the prime minister’s comments about a “land of strangers” risked “legitimising Reform’s worldview and giving it a home in the political mainstream”.

He said: “Once legitimised, he – and those like him – will feel emboldened to go even further.

“At its heart, this is about pride, hubris, and a refusal by those in charge to admit that their strategy has backfired. We are now in crisis mode.

“Nobody on the progressive left is against a serious, balanced approach to immigration – one that meets our economic needs, fills gaps in care, supports universities, and treats people with dignity. But that has to be paired with real action to make this country better – for everyone.”

This afternoon, the home secretary is expected to give a statement in the Commons.

Yvette Cooper will address fellow MPs at 5pm after the government unveiled its white paper outlining new immigration reforms.

Nigel Farage has mocked Sir Keir Starmer as “playing catch up” with Reform UK over his immigration crackdown.

The Reform UK leader rubbished the prime minister’s claims his overhaul is not in response to the rise of the populist right-wing party.He said: “He knows that amongst the great British public this issue rates even higher than the health service, and he’s just basically playing catch up with Reform.”

And he told GB News: “This is not the conversation of the North London dinner party set, believe you me. I mean, many of the things he said are the same things I’ve been saying for over 20 years, and that’s Starmer’s problem, insincerity. What does this man actually believe in other than trying to keep power?”

Sir Keir Starmer has been condemned for “channelling the language of Enoch Powell’s ‘rivers of blood’ speech” by warning of Britain becoming a “land of strangers”.

Labour MP Clive Lewis told The Independent it was a phrase “loaded with a long and toxic history on the far right of British politics” and even if unintentional it is “simply not sustainable” language to use.

“We have a sitting PM using that rhetoric while pushing through some of the most draconian immigration measures we’ve seen in decades,” he said.

Mr Lewis warned: “This kind of language doesn’t just alienate communities – it drives people away from our country altogether. And if those at the top think this is a clever tactic to win another five years by rolling out the red carpet for Nigel Farage, they’re mistaken. We are losing far more progressive voters than we are gaining from Reform UK.”

Nadia Whittome, a left-wing Labour MP, has criticised Sir Keir Starmer for his immigration reform speech.

Posting on social media, the MP for Nottingham East said: “The step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the government is shameful and dangerous.

“Migrants are our neighbours, friends and family.

“To suggest that Britain risks becoming “an island of strangers” because of immigration mimics the scaremongering of the far-right.

“Blaming migrants for a housing crisis and failing public services lets the real culprits off the hook: landlordism, chronic underinvestment and deepening inequality.

“Labour was elected to tackle those, not parrot Reform’s scapegoating, which will never improve people’s lives.”

The government has been warned that its new immigration white paper “could damage integration”.

Responding to the measures unveiled by Starmer today, Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future thinktank, said: “This white paper rightly says that integration matters, but some of its measures could damage rather than encourage integration.

“It’s hard to see how a ten-year wait before someone can become British helps them integrate. Most of the public are happy for people to be eligible for citizenship after five years. The government should be proactive on citizenship, not punitive.”

Sir Keir Starmer’s “island of strangers” remark is not anti-migrant, the minister for migration and citizenship said, amid backlash from charities and backbenchers.

Seema Malhotra said the PM meant Britain risked becoming a country where communities “live side by side” without “common ties that bind us together”

The prime minister gave a speech in Downing Street on Monday morning to announce that every area of the UK’s “broken” immigration system will be tightened

In an interview on the World at One, Ms Malhotra said: “What that really recognises is that we risk being communities that live side by side, rather than work and walk together.”

Brexit’s role in the soaring net migration figures cannot be ignored, as the Home Office’s immigration white paper makes clear.

In the run up to, and years following, the EU referendum, net migration was hovering between 200,000 and 300,000.

But once Britain officially left the EU, net migration soared, quadrupling in the space of just four years from 2019 to 2023.

The impact of Brexit on a graph is stark viewing, and has been included in the Home Office’s documents.

It blames the introduction of new immigration policies following Brexit, including the lowering of the threshold for skilled migrants from degree level to A-level equivalency, and the setting of the basic salary threshold at £25,600.

The prime minister said migrants must commit to integration and learning English, as part of a crackdown ministers say will boost economic growth.

In what the Labour leader claimed would be a “clean break” from the past, the changes include a wait of 10 years, not five, to apply for permanent residency – unless they can prove a significant contribution – a ban on recruiting care workers from overseas and, for the first time, adult dependents will have to prove they understand basic English.

Read the full report here:

The home secretary is still refusing to put a target on net migration, but highlighted on Monday an expected 100,000 reduction in visas due to measures in the government’s white paper.

It will mean 100,000 fewer arrivals each year in the UK, as set out in a technical annex published alongside the document.

Speaking to GB News, she said: “Already, we’re reducing the visas that we’re issuing. That’s already happening. Already we are increasing returns.

“Enforced returns are up over 20 per cent since the election and these measures go further.

“So for example, some of the measures around the skilled worker visa, the care worker visa, the settlement rules and the English language rules, those together would mean a reduction of 100,000 fewer visas or fewer people arriving just as a result of those measures.”