SO, Sir Keir Starmer has a new immigration plan.
If we take Monday’s speech at face value, gone is the fluffy Europhilia and open-arms rhetoric.
Instead he wanted us to hear hard numbers, hard truths, and a pledge to finally get a grip on who comes into the country.
Yes, we’ve heard it all before. — that old tinnitus-level drone of promises never fulfilled.
But this was a Labour Prime Minister at least laying out some firm proposals.
Plans to close visa loopholes, raise salary thresholds for foreign workers, tighten family reunification rules and stop colleges acting as migration mills.
These aren’t vague aspirations, even if delivering them will be another matter.
Where Keir is definitely right is that the Conservatives .
Broken model
By the time they left office, net migration had ballooned to over 700,000, more than triple what it was when they took power.
After , we were promised a high-skill, high-growth economy under a shiny new points-based system. What we got instead was a broken model. Student visas exploited to bring over extended families.
Care homes plugged with low-paid overseas labour. that worsens by the day.
Now Starmer says he’s shutting down the failed because it’s “right”;;, “fair”;; and what he “believes in”;;.
You could be forgiven for not being entirely convinced that he truly believes in his new plan. After all, he famously has had more flip-flops than beach in July.
He U-turned on Corbyn, on trans, on the green agenda, on the second referendum. Indeed, not long ago, he was marching arm in arm with the open-borders brigade.
But here’s the thing: If political shapeshifting is what it takes to finally fix our , then shapeshift away, Sir Keir. As the old saying goes: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.
I thought we’d moved past the lunacy of calling anyone who wants functioning borders a fascist.
Apparently not.
What’s truly mad, though, is the reaction from his own side. One Labour MP accused him of using “language straight from the far-right playbook”;;.
Another said he was “dog-whistling”;;. And some keyboard hysterics even claimed the speech was a modern-day take on .
Honestly, do these people ever give it a rest? It must be exhausting being perpetually outraged. I thought we’d moved past the lunacy of calling anyone who wants functioning borders a fascist.
Apparently not. That strain of political derangement lives on it seems, somewhere in the borderlands between t fatigue and the identity meltdown.
Instead of applauding the fact that a Government elected off the back of the is finally reflecting public opinion, parts of the Left are throwing tantrums the likes of which would make a two-year-old blush.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: For too long, decent, tolerant, hard-working Brits have been gaslit into silence.
Say you want lower immigration and you’re a bigot. Say you want migration policies that don’t crush your local , and GP surgeries and you’re a frothing xenophobe.
But this whole debate isn’t (and never was) about immigrants themselves. It’s about public services, it’s about the economy, it’s about social cohesion.
Declining country
You can value the contribution of migrants (as I do given that I am one) and still believe that relentless inflows of immigrants in an already declining country are bad news.
Starmer’s proposal to is absolutely right.
You cannot have a cohesive society when huge numbers of people don’t speak the same language.
But, let’s give credit where it’s due. Keir Starmer dared to say what too many politicians from his side have been too cowardly to say.
His warning that Britain risks becoming “”;; might be the truest thing he’s said since becoming Labour leader.
More scrutiny on visas? Good. Tighter rules on dependents? Long overdue. Higher salary thresholds to stop the undercutting of British workers? Essential.
If Starmer’s misstepped, it’s not because he’s gone too far. If anything, it’s because he hasn’t gone far enough.
The boats are still coming at speed. Integration still isn’t happening. And there’s little talk yet of integration.
But, let’s give credit where it’s due. dared to say what too many politicians from his side have been too cowardly to say.
Let’s see if he will truly deliver on what we all know the British public wants.
