Starmer's robust language nods to immigration failures

Starmer's robust language nods to immigration failures

The PM knows cutting immigration is crucial to his credibility, political editor Chris Mason writes.

Despair at Starmer’s ‘divisive’ language as he clamps down on immigration

Backbench Labour MPs, unions and charities criticise the PM, who is urged to apologise for his ‘dangerous’ comments

ESOL teachers sound alarm over Starmer’s language proposals for migrants

Immigration and asylum ESOL teachers sound alarm over Starmer’s language proposals for migrants English courses for speakers of other languages have suffered 20 years of cuts as ‘a casualty of the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment’ Weronika Strzyżyńska – 13 May 2025 ESOL providers say the resources aren’t there to increase English teaching provision. Stock photograph by Zaripov Andrei/ Getty Images Teachers of English to speakers of other languag…

When Keir Starmer presented his plans for a new migration policy on Monday, he sounded like a glowing Brexit supporter. The Tories had promised the British to lower immigration – but the exact opposite had happened: the net migration quadrupled between 2019 and 2023. The then government had experimented with "open borders" – and indeed "in a country that voted for a restriction." This is now the end: "We are ending the experiment," promised Star…

Starmer's just the latest to be shaped by UK's immigration debate

Immigration has shaped UK politics for the past 20 years, often in ways that surprised at the time but which appear in hindsight to make perfect sense. David Cameron’s 2010 pledge to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands set the Tory party on a collision course first with Brexit and then the subsequent incarnation of Nigel Farage and Reform UK. Voters didn’t fail to notice that immigration reached a peak of around 900,000 in 2023, largel…