Starmer to slash migration? Don't hold your breath

SIR Keir Starmer has promised to reduce net migration drastically by 2029. A white paper outlines measures such as increasing English language requirements for visa holders and their dependents, extending eligibility for settled status from five to 10 years, and scrapping the social care visa altogether.

- Esther Krakue

The message is clear: Britain has had enough of mass immigration. It would be compelling if the PM hadn't spent the past decade opposing any serious attempt to control immigration.

He voted against measures to restrict illegal entry, labelled Tory legislation racist and helped kill the Rwanda deportation scheme. Now, with Reform UK on the rise and Red Wall seats at risk, he is reinventing himself as Britain's unlikely border czar.

The rebrand is a little too fresh to swallow. The Prime Minister claims he wants to stop Britain becoming an "island of strangers". That's quite the pivot from the man who, in 2021, voted against voter ID and the removal of asylum seekers to safe third countries.

Let's not forget Starmer's pledge to "smash the gangs" behind small boat crossings. How's that going? So far this year, more than 11,500 people have crossed the Channel a 25% increase on the same period last year.

Since the election, nearly 35,000 people have arrived via small boat. The gangs, it seems, are doing fine.