UK PM Starmer Declares Tougher Visa Rules and Promises to Reduce Migration

PM Starmer promises that stricter visa regulations and reforms will result in fewer migrants.

In addition to predicting a “significant” decline in net migration over the next four years, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has proposed a comprehensive revamp of the UK’s legal immigration system.

On Monday, Starmer unveiled the government’s most recent recommendations, which include raising the requirements for skilled worker visas, prohibiting the hiring of foreign care workers, and raising the cost of recruiting foreign employees. He did not specify a specific amount, but according to Home Office projections, the measures may lower immigration by 100,000 per year by 2029 based on eight important policy areas.

Starmer denied that the ideas were a response to Reform UK’s electoral result, saying instead that “these reforms will bring the immigration system back into control.” “To give us more control, we will tighten up every aspect of the immigration system, including job, family, and education. There will be fewer migrants and stricter enforcement than before.

The removal of a visa pathway established by the Boris Johnson administration that permitted firms to employ foreign health and social care workers is a crucial component of the measures. In the future, businesses will need to hire British citizens or keep their current foreign employees who are already living in the UK. According to the Home Office, just one change in policy will result in a 7,000–8,000 person decrease in annual immigration.

Additionally, employers will be under more financial strain. Smaller businesses will pay up to £2,400 and bigger ones up to £6,600 to sponsor a foreign worker, respectively, as the Immigration Skills Charge increases by 32%.

With the government mulling a new levy on every international student registered in a UK institution, universities may also be impacted. The tax’s proceeds would go toward skill development. Stricter compliance requirements will also be implemented, requiring 90% of overseas students to finish their courses and 95% to begin them.

Restoring the degree-level qualification criterion for skilled worker visa applicants is one of the further adjustments, reversing earlier reforms implemented during the administration of Boris Johnson. It is anticipated that this will render roughly 180 job positions visa-ineligible. Subject to the independent Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations, there will be exceptions for industries with persistent labor shortages or those essential to the government’s industrial plan.

Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch criticized the measures despite the government’s efforts, stating: “This is nowhere near the scale of the change we need to see.”