Markus Andrews

UK care homes will no longer be allowed to recruit care workers from overseas as ministers scramble to slash net migration to “significantly” below half a million people a year. The crackdown is part of a swathe of measures in Labour’s long-awaited white paper on migration as ministers attempt to tackle the growing threat posed by Nigel Farage and Reform. Also included will be plans to deport more foreign criminals, tell employers they must train UK staff and requirements that skilled workers entering Britain have a degree. Home secretary Yvette Cooper, who is due to set out the sweeping changes on Monday, said that high levels of people coming into the country and a lack of training in the UK was creating “distortions” that were “undermining the economy”. Net migration reached 900,000 in 2023, although it fell to just over 700,000 a year later. Ms Cooper said the government’s reforms will not include a target number, but added that it had to fall “significantly” below 500,000. The crackdown on visas will increase fears that more care homes could face the threat of closure as Age UK warns that overseas workers are ‘keeping many services afloat’ More

David Lammy has ordered Foreign Office officials to ensure that tackling the migration crisis is on the agenda for every international summit and meeting, The Independent has learnt.It comes as the government prepares to unveil its long-awaited white paper on migration policy as Labour attempts to tackle the growing threat posed by Nigel Farage and Reform.Immigration, both legal and illegal, featured heavily in the recent local elections, where Reform won 10 councils, almost 700 seats and took Runcorn and Helsby off Labour in the by-election.Foreign secretary David Lammy has ordered officials put tackling the migration crisis on the agenda of every international summit and meeting More

Keir Starmer and other European leaders have warned Vladimir Putin he faces “massive” new sanctions and increased military aid to Ukraine if he does not agree to an almost immediate 30-day ceasefire. The prime minister said they were “calling out” the Russian leader with the backing of Donald Trump. “If [Putin] is serious about peace, he has a chance to show it now,” Sir Keir said. And he warned there were “no more ifs and buts” after he flew to Kyiv to stand side by side with President Zelensky, saying Putin had not required extra conditions to be met when “he wanted a ceasefire to have a parade – and he does not need them now”. In an extraordinary turnaround just weeks after President Trump’s showdown with Zelensky in the Oval Office, Sir Keir also said Europe and the US were “speaking with one voice” on the issue. (Left to right) Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron (Stefan Rousseau/PA) More

Keir Starmer was on a secret mission when he flew off to Norway for the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) meeting with heads of government of European Nato allies.Yes, he was there to press the case for the “coalition of the willing” to protect Ukraine in a post peace settlement reality before heading to Kyiv.But he had other important business linked to his government’s economic growth and defence cooperation agendas – selling frigates.The Norwegian government is about to make a decision on buying new frigates for their navy, but who to buy from? The choice (as often seems to be the case) is Britain or France.It certainly helped that when Sir Keir had his bilateral meeting about a Norwegian ship with Norway’s PM, Jonas Gahr Støre warmly described him as “our best friend.”As the sun shone down on the two men standing on the ship’s deck in the idyllic setting of Oslo’s harbour, it seemed like a match made in heaven.Sir Keir Starmer (left) meets Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on the Norwegian coastguard vessel Jan Mayen in Oslo (Alistair Grant/PA) More

Peter Mandelson has described Donald Trump as a “people person” who could cut levies on British goods again after extraordinary scenes which saw the two men hold hands in the Oval Office this week. The UK’s ambassador in Washington said he was looking forward to negotiating with the US to “bring down further tariffs”.He also revealed that when he first walked into White House, President Trump said to him: “God, you’re a good looking fellow, aren’t you?”.And he described Trump as a “people person” who takes people at “face value”, saying that the president had judged him on his merits.Lord Mandelson and Donald Trump in the White House More

Whitehall departments are at risk of failing to get part of their funding in Rachel Reeves’s spending unless they decant hundreds of civil servants to other parts of the UK.A major government shake up will require more civil service jobs to be based in 12 locations outside London, delivering and developing government policy closer to the communities it affects.The move is expected to provide a £729m boost for local economies across UK in shake up to bring government closer to communities.The 12 growth areas are: Greater Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Cardiff, Glasgow, Darlington, Newcastle and Tyneside, Sheffield, Bristol, Edinburgh, Belfast and York.Pat McFadden will write to departments (Lucy North/PA) More

Sir Keir Starmer has revealed how his special relationship with Donald Trump helped secure a historic trade deal between the UK and US.In an exclusive interview with The Independent, the prime minister lifted the lid on how nurturing their friendship won the prize, proving critics wrong about his approach to dealing with a tricky opponent.Sir Keir said the “grown-ups” had set aside their huge political differences to reach a deal, and told how a last-minute telephone call from Mr Trump on Wednesday night finally secured a deal after weeks of negotiations by both sides.A joint news conference the next day, in which the two leaders were on first name terms, gave the appearance of the warmest relationship between a prime minister and president since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.It marks an extraordinary turnaround for a Labour leader whose foreign secretary David Lammy once referred to the president as a “woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.Independent political editor David Maddox speaks to Keir Starmer More

Thousands of people gathered in Romania’s capital on Friday for a pro-European Union march. It came a week before the final vote of a closely watched presidential election that pits a hard-right nationalist front-runner against the capital’s pro-EU mayor.Marchers converged in Bucharest in front of the government building, where many waved the blue and yellow flags of Europe. Many chanted slogans such as “We are in Europe” and “Bucharest is not Budapest,” referring to Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a member but also a longtime critic of the EU.A communist country until 1989, Romania joined the EU in 2007. But last year it was plunged into its worst political crisis in decades when a top court voided the previous election. The far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped the first round following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.The rally was held nearly a week after the first round of a presidential election redo that saw hard-right nationalist George Simion, 38, emerge as the front-runner. In second place was 55-year-old incumbent Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. “We need to develop … we want to be like the best countries, and we don’t have the possibilities on our own,” said Stefan Gheorghe, a 23-year-old lawyer. “You need the European Union to help us out. It is very important to us to stay together … and to benefit from each other.”A median of polls ahead of the runoff suggests Simion holds a lead in the vote, which will be held between the two staunchly antiestablishment candidates on May 18. Observers have warned that the outcome could reshape the EU and NATO member country’s geopolitical direction.After reaching second place on Sunday night, Dan called the final vote a choice “between a pro-Western direction for Romania and an anti-Western one.”Simion’s critics have long accused him of being Russia-friendly and warn that his presidency would undermine both the EU and NATO as Moscow’s war drags on in Ukraine. But in an interview with The Associated Press this week, Simion rejected the accusations and said, “It’s not for the good of the Romanian people to be close to Russia.”“We want to be a member of the European Union. Some fake news were saying that we want to exit the European project,” said Simion, who leads Romania’s second-largest party, the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians. “We don’t want to leave. We are here to stay. We invested a lot.”Simion, who came fourth in last year’s race and later backed Georgescu, said in an earlier interview with the AP that he wants to see “more power” go to the bloc’s 27 individual members, “not toward the European institutions.”Similar rallies were held in several cities across Romania on Friday to mark Europe Day, a date that proclaims to celebrate peace and unity in Europe.Although Simion and Dan are ideological opposites, they both made their political careers railing against Romania’s old political class, which has fallen out of favor as strong antiestablishment sentiment among voters grips the country. For Diana Draghici, 38, the upcoming runoff will be a pivotal moment for Romania’s future and a choice between forging stronger EU ties or potentially shifting East. “I think it’s important that the young people who were undecided and didn’t vote so far … to have a wake-up call and choose who they want to have represented,” she said. “It could decide two extremely different scenarios for Romania’s future.” More