Restoring control over the immigration system

Restoring control over the immigration system is a 2025 white paper detailing plans by the British government to restrict immigration into the United Kingdom.

Contents

Forewards

The white paper contained forewards by both Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.

In Starmer's forward, he stated that net migration into the UK had "exploded" since 2019, blaming the previous Conservative Party government for the increase. Starmer then stated that "the damage this has done to our country is incalculable," saying that the increase had distorted the British economy, led to a lack of investment in skills training for British workers, and had led to a lack of trust in British politics. He then pledged to "go further and faster" and "restore control to our border."

In Cooper's forward, she described the UK as "an interconnected and outward looking nation." She stated that while immigration "will always be an important part of our country’s future as well as our past," it had not been properly managed or controlled in recent years. She pledged that the government was committed to reducing net migration as part of its Plan for Change, saying that "the rules were too often just ignored" by the previous Conservative goverment and that the immigration framework had become increasingly based on court decisions instead of parliamentary decisions. She additionally stated that the government would introduce additional legislation later in the summer to reform the asylum framework. She concluded by describing the five basic principles underlying the white paper:

1. That net migration should be reduced;
2. That the immigration framework should be tied to skills training for British workers;
3. That the immigration framework should be based on "clearer rules" decided by the British Parliament;
4. That those rules should be properly enforced;
5. That the immigration framework should support integration.

Policy changes

The white paper introduced a number of changes to the Immigration policy of the United Kingdom, including:

• Increasing the requirements for English proficiency for all visas;
• Increasing the time required to have lived in the UK to gain settled status from five years to ten;
• Stopping the issuing of visas to social care workers;
• Restricting skilled worker visa eligibility to graduate-level occupations;
• Introducing tightly controlled temporary visas for lower-skilled shortage roles, with limited duration and no route to settled status;
• Reducing the length of time people on graduate visas can stay in the UK after completing their studies from two years to eighteen months;
• Introducing new legislation to limit the application of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to asylum seekers;
• Granting the Home Office increased powers to revoke visas for crimes that were not serious enough to warrant imprisonment;
• Increased age testing on asylum seekers;
• Placing financial penalties on visa sponsors when the visa holder breaks immigration regulations.

Presentation

Keir Starmer speech

Prime Minister Keir Starmer introduced the white paper with a speech given on 12 May 2025. In the speech, Starmer pledged to "take back control of our borders and close the book on a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country."

He described the previous Conservative Party government's immigration policies as "chaos" and "a one-nation experiment in open borders," saying that net migration into the UK quadrupled between 2019 and 2023, despite Conservative Party pledges to reduce immigration. Starmer then highlighted that he was moving to reduce immigration because he personally believed that it was the right thing to do and not because of party politics. He continued by stating that "nations depend on rules... Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together," saying that the UK's immigration system "seems almost designed to permit abuse" and was "contributing to the forces that are slowly pulling our country apart." Starmer continued by saying that immigrants "make a massive contribution" to British society and that the UK "must compete for the best talent in the world." He stated, however, that "parts of our economy seem almost addicted to importing cheap labour," saying that apprenticeship rates have declined while visas have increased and that colleges have dedicated themselves to international students instead of domestic students.

Starmer stated that the white paper would increase restrictions on all aspects of immigration policy, listing some of the policy changes such as increased English-language requirements, increased time to reach settled status, and tougher border enforcement. He pledged that immigration rates would decrease as a result of the white paper and that the government would implement further restrictions if necessary, saying that the white paper would allow the UK to "choose who comes here so that migration works for our national interest."

He concluded the speech by stating that "the whole debate is skewed, as if some people think controlling immigration is reigning in a sort of natural freedom rather than a basic and reasonable responsibility of government," pledging a "clean break with the past." He stated that he had the support of a majority of the British population in restricting immigration. Finally, he summarised the white paper as "lower net migration, higher skills, backing British workers, the start of repairing our social contract, which the chaos and cynicism of the last government did so much to undermine."

Reactions

The speech was widely seen as a reaction to the results of the 2025 United Kingdom local elections, in which the right-wing and anti-immigration Reform UK party won 30% of the vote.

The speech provoked divided reactions within Starmer's Labour Party. MP Nadia Whittome claimed that the speech "mimics the scaremongering of the far right," while MP Sarah Owen argued that the government should focus on "investing in communities to thrive – not pitting people against each other." Welsh Labour leader and Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan stated that she did not want to be "drawn into a debate where people are using divisive language when it comes to immigration." MP Joani Reid, on the other hand, stated that "we are not closing the door on immigration that can boost growth and strengthen the economy. But employers who hope to get away with paying low wages or avoid investment in staff training have had ‘time’ called today." Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship Seema Malhotra stated that Starmer's speech recognised "how much migration has been and remains a vital part of our identity," saying that unless immigration policy changed "we risk being communities that live side by side, rather than work and walk together." Home Secretary Yvette Cooper stated that Starmer was "right to say we need to change," adding that "I know that everybody always gets caught up in focusing on different phrases and so on, but we do have to be talking about the policies."

The speech, in particular the phrase "island of strangers," was compared by several commentators to right-wing politician Enoch Powell's 1968 Rivers of Blood speech, in which Powell stated that Brits risked becoming "strangers in their own country." The Prime Minister's Office rejected comparisons to Powell and defended use of the phrase, saying that Starmer was "using his own words to rightly both recognise the contribution migrants have made over generations and to make the point that uncontrolled migration has been too high."

See also

• 2024 Keir Starmer Speech on Migration
• History of UK immigration control