Home secretary says net migration needs to fall 'substantially' - but won't reveal by how much

Shadow home secretary calls government's immigration plans 'too little'

Chris Philp has said the government's prediction that their new proposals will see the number of visas drop by 50,000 is "too little".

A little earlier this morning, Yvette Cooper told Sky News that plans to change visas for foreign care workers and skilled workers will see a 50,000 "reduction of low-skilled worker visas" this year. 

The home secretary also said the government will not set fixed targets for net migration, as previous governments have.

Asked if this reduction will be enough, the shadow home secretary said: "Well, that, frankly, is too little."

Philp added: "We would go further and tomorrow we intend to push to a vote in parliament a measure that would have an annual cap on migration voted for and set by parliament to restore proper democratic accountability, because those numbers were far, far too high."

Pushed on what that annual cap would be, Philp told the BBC his party had not decided yet, but that it would a "further reduction of significantly more than 50,000".

But Philp said he would support Labour's plan of scrapping foreign care worker visas.

'We are closing recruitment from abroad' for care worker visa, says Cooper

We're getting a bit more detail on the government's plans to make it harder for foreign care workers to come to the UK. 

It's all part of plans to crack down on legal migration, which the government has been unveiling ahead of the proposals being introduced to parliament tomorrow.

Speaking about new restrictions the government is going to introduce, Yvette Cooper said: "We will allow them to continue to extend visas and also to recruit from more than 10,000 people who came on a care worker visa, where the sponsorship visa was cancelled.

"Effectively, they came to jobs that weren’t actually here or that were not of a proper standard.

"They are here and care companies should be recruiting from that pool of people, rather than recruiting from abroad, we are closing recruitment from abroad."

Speaking to the BBC, the home secretary added: "That is a significant change and we’re doing it alongside saying we need to bring in a new fair pay agreement for care workers, because we saw that huge increase in care work recruitment from abroad, but without actually ever tackling the problems in the system in the care sector."

Changes to student visas 

Cooper also said there will be "some changes" to rules around students and immigration, but said these would be explained tomorrow.

She said: "We are making some changes, but we will continue to value international students, to welcome international students, and we will continue to have arrangements where they can work after they graduate.

"We will let them continue to come and to stay and to work afterwards."

Sir Keir Starmer says new migration rules will back British workers

The prime minister has said tackling migration will stop people in Britain being "undercut".

Sir Keir Starmer said his new migration proposals, which include making it harder for people such as foreign care workers to get visas, will "restore control". 

In a post on X, he said: "The Tories lost control of our borders and let net migration soar to record levels, undercutting hardworking Brits.

"I won't stand for it.

"I promised to restore control and cut migration, and I'm delivering with tough new measures.

"British workers – I’ve got your back."

The government's immigration white paper, the parliamentary procedure for introducing a new law, will be introduced in the House of Commons tomorrow.

Previous Conservative government 'made some very serious mistakes' on immigration, admits Philp

Chris Philp says his party made "some very serious mistakes" over immigration, when they were last in government.

The shadow home secretary tells Trevor Phillips that they "allowed [immigration] to be far, far too high".

He adds: "Let me just start with a very honest acknowledgement of that fact."

Asked about the Boris Johnson government's record on immigration, Philp says this was a "huge mistake" and says it "should not have been allowed to happen".

The shadow minister is trying to draw a line between previous Conservative governments and his party under current leader, Kemi Badenoch. 

It's an effort to deflect criticism away from the Tories on immigration, as Labour have accused the party of failing to act while in office.

Conservatives to put two immigration proposals to a vote

Philp says the Conservatives are calling a "binding, annual cap on migration, set by parliament" and for the removal of all foreign criminals, by repealing the Human Rights Act.

Both policies will be put to a vote in the Commons tomorrow.

He says: "Those are two specific, credible ideas to fix our country's immigration problems, that we've developed and proposed.

"We're gonna put them to a vote, and I'm pretty sure that Labour, who are not serious about fixing this,  are gonna vote against those ideas."

UK-US agreement is 'not a comprehensive trade deal', warns Chris Philp

Turning away from immigration for a moment because Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, has hit out at the trade agreement announced by the UK and the US on Thursday. 

He says this is "not a comprehensive trade deal".

"It is a very narrow deal, talking mainly about tariffs", he says.

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, he adds: "While it's good that the terrible, punitive tariffs that have been in place for a few weeks have been eased... 

"As the governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, said, the level of tariffs now being charged on UK exports going into America are higher under this so-called deal than they were at the beginning of the year.

"So, after all of Keir Starmer's crawling in the Oval Office and that sort of obscene obsequiousness we saw a few months ago, we're actually in a worse place today than we were on January 1, and I don't think that is a cause for celebration."

Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds told Sky News on Thursday that criticism of the deal based on comparisons to before tariffs were introduced is unhelpful, as this world no longer exists.

But Philp says the "real economic story" is "thanks to Keir Starmer's appalling budget".

He also accused the chancellor of "lying" to the public about putting up taxes.

New bill to make it easier for foreign criminals to be deported

The law will be changed to make it easier for foreign criminals to be deported, the government has announced.

Under the new proposals, the Home Office will be given greater awareness of immigrants receiving convictions, as well as wider powers to act. 

Currently, the government is only informed of foreign nationals who receive prison sentences, and deportations usually focus on people given a custodial sentence of one year or more.

But under the new plans, the Home Office will be told about all foreign nationals who are convicted, regardless of whether they receive a prison sentence or not. 

The government will also have wider powers to deport people who have recently arrived in the UK but already have committed crimes elsewhere. 

It says these powers will make it easier to remove migrants who commit offences, especially those who haven't been given a 12-month prison sentence. 

Other plans will also see the law changed so that somebody who commits an offence on a short-term visa will have it cancelled and will be blocked from making a fresh application.

'The rules need to be respected and enforced'

Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said: "It is a basic requirement - those who come to the UK should abide by our laws."

She said the current system for returning foreign criminals is "far too weak" and said the government has already increased the number of foreign offenders being deported.

 "But we need much higher standards", she added.

"The rules need to be respected and enforced. We need to restore control so that net migration comes down and proper standards and order are returned."

Government must scrap the Human Rights Act, warn Tories

Responding to this, Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary said the government has voted down similar proposals put forward by the Conservatives.

He said: "We put in an amendment to the Borders Bill to do this to deport all foreign national offenders, but Labour voted against it a few weeks ago. 

"If they're serious about this, then they need to repeal the Human Rights Act for all immigration cases, because human rights claims are what stop most deportations."

'We need to freeze immigration' to grow the economy, says Reform deputy leader

 Richard Tice says immigration should be frozen "to get the economy growing".

The deputy leader of Reform UK says he belives the majority of people agree with this policy. 

Speaking to Sky News, Tice says: "The way to get our economy growing is to freeze immigration, get wages up for British workers, train our own people, get our own people - who are economically inactive - back into work.

"We've got nine million people economically inactive in this country", he adds.

Tice says he thinks "the majority of this country agree with our policy".

Reform is calling for a minister for deportation. 

Challenged on what this would actually look like, Tice declines to answer. But he says but his party will hold a press conference in a couple of weeks to share more detail.

Calls for new department of immigration

Pushed on whether this role is already covered by the role of home secretary, Tice hits back that "the Home Office is not fit for purpose".

He says the Home Office has failed to deport sufficient numbers of people.

Tice adds: "We have consistently said, you need to have a separate, dedicated team, like a sort of department of immigration, frankly, with new people who actually believe in the cause of sovereign borders, to implement this policy."

The deputy leader also defends his party's efforts to try and block any migrants being placed in hotels in areas run by Reform-controlled councils.

"We will use whatever means, we will use whatever levers we can", he says. 

"We may not succeed. But if you don't try, you've got no chance. At least we will try in a serious, robust way, which no-one else has."

Government needs to see a 'serious response' from Russia, says Cooper

Yvette Cooper says there needs to be a "serious response" from Russia, regarding ending the war in Ukraine. 

The home secretary tells Trevor Phillips that Russia has not taken proposals for a permanent ceasefire seriously.

She says: "Well, we need a serious response from Russia.

"They started this illegal invasion of Ukraine and everyone wants to see peace in Ukraine, and now we’ve had the huge international pressure calling for a ceasefire.

"We do need to now see a serious response from the Russian regime. That so far has been lacking, I hope that they will now take this seriously."

Immigration plans will see 50,000 fewer visas issued this year, says home secretary

The home secretary says new plans to tackle immigration will see 50,000 fewer visas issued this year alone. 

Yvette Cooper tells Sky News the government is trying to implement a "substantial reduction" in the number of people coming to the UK.

One of the means of doing this is by restricting who can come to the UK on graduate visas, as well as who can come to work in the care sector.

The home secretary indicates the government will close the care worker visa route for overseas recruitment.

Speaking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, she says: "We’re going to introduce new restrictions on lower-skilled workers, so new visa controls, because we think actually what we should be doing is concentrating on the higher-skilled migration, and we should be concentrating on training in the UK.

“New requirements to train here in the UK to make sure that the UK workforce benefits, and, also, we will be closing the care worker visa for overseas recruitment."

Pushed on what this will mean in terms of numbers, Cooper adds: "We're introducing much tighter rules. 

"So, if you're doing less than a graduate job, then you won't be included under the skilled worker visa, unless it's for a temporary shortage occupation.

"Then there will be new workforce strategies, new requirements to train here in the UK.

"Those changes, the combination - just those low skilled visa changes and the care worker changes... 

"Together, that is a reduction of probably in the region of up to 50,000 low-skilled worker visas, a reduction in the course of this year alone."

But Cooper says the government's immigration reforms won't include a target number for net migration. 

"The Conservatives did set out multiple targets, broken promises, all of them were broken. So, we’re not going to do that", she adds.

Labour has 'failed' on migration because they have 'no grip, no guts and no plan', say Tories

We've heard from the Conservatives about their views on the government's proposals to tackle immigration - and it's not pretty. 

Reducing migration is a familiar stomping ground for the Conservatives, though the home secretary has accused the party of leaving a "failed immigration system" in place for years. 

Now, the party has hit back, arguing instead that it is Labour who has "had the opportunity to [fix immigration] and failed".

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, called the government's new white paper (setting out the plans) a "white flag".

He has accused Labour of undoing controls in place to reduce immigration.

Philp said: "The 88% fall in student dependents and 84% drop in social care visas didn’t happen due to Labour, they happened because of tough Conservative policies. We planned to go further by raising the family salary threshold, but Labour scrapped it.

"Labour ditched our plan to raise the family salary threshold, gutted enforcement powers, and now they’re boasting about returns built entirely on the back of Conservative groundwork. It’s utterly shameless."

Philp has called on Labour to back the Conservatives Deportation Bill, announced last week, which would see the Human Rights Act repealed for immigration matters, a fixed cap on the number of people moving to the UK and all foreign criminals deported, among other measures. 

But Philp said Labour has not backed it because "they have got no grip, no guts, and no plan".

-SKY NEWS