Migrants will instead have to spend a decade in the UK before applying to stay unless they can show a “real and lasting contribution” to the economy and society. Ms Cooper on Sunday said that the care worker visa would be closed for overseas recruitment as part of the overhaul.
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The government will also raise English language requirements across every immigration route, as ministers look to bring down net migration which reached 728,000 last year.
But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp MP was left unimpressed and said: “Keir Starmer pretends to be tough but just weeks ago his MPs voted against our 10-year residency and economic contribution test for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Now he says that immigrants who make no contribution should still be allowed to stay.
“He is trying to steal credit for recent substantial reductions in visa numbers that resulted from Conservative reforms in April 2024.
“Starmer also suspended the Conservative plan for a £38,000 salary threshold for family visas. Will he now bring that back?
“On Monday, Conservatives are forcing a vote on a binding migration cap and removing the Human Rights Act from immigration matters. But Starmer and Labour will vote it down.
“Starmer is the same man who wrote letters protesting against deporting dangerous foreign criminals and has overseen the worst ever start to a year for illegal immigrants crossing the channel. The idea that Starmer is tough on immigration is a joke.”
Sir Keir Starmer will pledge that “every area” of the immigration system will be “tightened up” as he unveils a raft of new reforms.
The Prime Minister will say that “enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall” because of the policies in the Immigration White Paper, set to be unveiled later.
At a press conference, Sir Keir is expected to say: “For years we have had a system that encourages businesses to bring in lower paid workers, rather than invest in our young people.
“That is the Britain this broken system has created.
“Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control. Enforcement will be tougher than ever and migration numbers will fall. We will create a system that is controlled, selective and fair.
“One that recognises those who genuinely contribute to Britain’s growth and society, while restoring common sense and control to our borders. This is a clean break from the past and will ensure settlement in this country is a privilege that must be earned, not a right.”
The white paper comes less than a fortnight after Reform UK took control of 10 councils in England in the local elections.
Nigel Farage’s also party recently beat Labour to victory in the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary by-election.
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice insisted that the party’s strong performance in the local elections was “because people are raging, furious, about the levels of both legal and illegal immigration”.
Despite this, ministers have refused to set a target on net migration numbers after Ms Cooper branded it a “failed approach”.
She said that doing so left previous governments with “broken promises”.
Speaking to Sky News, she added: “We’re not going to take that really failed approach, because I think what we need to do is rebuild credibility and trust in the whole system.”
The Home Office has also said there will be reforms to deportation and removal rules.
Under the proposals, the Home Office will be informed of all foreign nationals convicted of offences and officials say it will make it easier to remove people who commit offences.
Rules around care worker visas will be changed to “prevent” them being used to “recruit from abroad”, she added.
But companies will still be able to hire from a pool of thousands of people who came to the UK on care visas for jobs that did not exist.
In March, the Home Office revealed over 470 care providers had had their licence to sponsor international staff suspended since 2022.
The Home Office said the crackdown on rogue care providers has seen around 40,000 workers displaced, many of whom are ready to rejoin the workforce.
The UK’s health and social care sector has played a significant role in driving migration.
Visas issued for health and care workers and their families fell by more than 237,000 or 68% in 2024 – from 348,000 in 2023 to 111,000 last year.
Christina McAnea, the Unison union’s general secretary, said: “The NHS and the care sector would have collapsed long ago without the thousands of workers who’ve come to the UK from overseas.
“Migrant health and care staff already here will now be understandably anxious about what’s to happen to them. The government must reassure these overseas workers they’ll be allowed to stay and continue with their indispensable work.
“Care workers from around the world no longer want to come to the UK. Hostile language towards migrants, the ban on bringing dependents and exploitation by unscrupulous employers have seen visa applications fall off a cliff in the past year.
“The government must get on with making its fair pay agreement a reality and ensure social care is funded properly.
“So long as care wages stay barely above the legal minimum, employers will never be able to recruit the staff needed to deliver a national care service of which we can all be proud.”
Alp Mehmet Chairman – Migrationwatch UK
I am wary of headlines beginning with, “government to crack down”, or “Prime Minister to unveil plans to end”.
How many times have we heard that sort of overblown guff only to be left wondering how the aim is to be achieved?
Not all I heard from Yvette Cooper today (Sunday) was bad.
Reverting to the higher, graduate level, threshold for high skill visas, is good news.
It should never have been abandoned by Boris Johnson.
Switching from degree level to roughly ‘A’ level, was a batty idea that we at Migration Watch strongly criticised at the time. Also sensible is the requirement for better spoken English from those choosing to make their life here.
Although, I have my doubts that this rule will be applied as firmly as it needs to be.
Extending to 10 years the qualifying period for permanent residency is also good. Will any of this make much difference to the numbers coming? I doubt it.
In any case, the ‘substantial reduction in migration’ of 50,000 visas that Yvette Cooper told Laura Kuenssberg she expected in light of the ‘revised regime for high skill and care worker visas’ is mostly the Tories’ doing.
Will the government’s plans ‘substantially’ reduce migration? The answer has to be a resounding no! In 2024 there were 875,000 visas issued for work, study and family. While 900,000 extensions of stay were granted. There were also 162,000 grants of settlement and 270,000 grants of citizenship. Ms Cooper can spin it any way she likes but nothing I have heard so far is going to make much of a dent in these numbers.
As for the introduction of legislation to make it more difficult to claim human rights related claims to stay on, I am not convinced that the government can do this while we remain signed up to the ECHR.
Much will depend on what eventually makes it onto the statute book and how it is all implemented. However, regarding work and study these proposals still, largely, leave overseas worker and student recruitment in the hands of employers and universities; they will grab the signal to continue bringing cheaper workers and higher paying students with relish.
I also noted that Home Office officials were briefing that net migration would only fall to 525,000 from 2028, and not to 340,000 (this had risen from 315,000).
Remember, if net migration were to fall to, say, an annual 600,000 from 2028, we would be looking at a population increase of some 20 million people within the next 25 years and the ethnic minority proportion of the population hovering at around the 50% mark.
Where will that leave us with integration?
