Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to cut immigration to the United Kingdom, declaring that without curbs, the area risks “becoming an island of strangers.”
“We will take back control of our borders,” Starmer said.
“Let me put it this way, nations depend on rules, fair rules. Sometimes, they’re written down, often, they’re not, but either way they give shape to our values, guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to each other,” he declared. “In a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
“I believe we need to reduce immigration. Significantly,” Starmer asserted.
“When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration, to learning our language, and our system should actively distinguish between those that do and those that don’t,” he explained. “I think that’s fair. Equally, Britain must compete for the best talent in the world, in science, in technology, in healthcare. You can’t simply put up a drawbridge, let nobody in, and think that’s an economy that would work.”
Starmer reiterated his call for migrants to speak English in a statement on X, writing, “If you want to live in the UK, you should speak English. That’s common sense.” He noted that the government will raise English language requirements for immigration.
GB News political commentator Alex Armstrong wrote on social media that Starmer has “voted against tougher immigration controls 15 times and was absent for 8 votes since 2021, backing stricter measures only once.”
