The Labour Party will force different parts of the government to draw up ‘skills improvement plans’ to reduce the reliance on foreign workers, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged.
If the party wins the general election next month, it will cut net migration into the UK, said Cooper, but will not set targets at this stage.
Cooper said she wanted to further cut reliance on foreign workers in “high migration” sectors such as construction, IT, social care, health and engineering.
A law forcing different parts of government to draw up skills improvement plans would ensure “significant changes [were put] in place”, she told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also pledged to cut net migration, telling the Sun on Sunday: “Read my lips – I will bring immigration numbers down.
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“If you trust me with the keys to No.10 I will make you this promise: I will control our borders and make sure British businesses are helped to hire Brits first.”
In the year to December 2023, net migration to the UK was 685,000, a drop of 10% after hitting a record high in 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Cooper accepted that a skills- and sector-focused approach could mean more restrictions on visas.
Changes to UK worker visas have only recently been introduced by the current government, including an increase in the minimum salary threshold for a skilled worker and curbs on foreign students bringing in dependants on their study visas.
Starmer has also hinted that Labour would lengthen bans on hiring workers for those companies that breach employment law, such as paying below the minimum wage, saying “bad bosses” would be prevented from hiring from overseas.
Details published so far of Labour’s employment pledges do not contain any detail on how it would impose obligations on employers to train UK workers before using the visa system.
Employer representatives have called for more clarity on how the plans would work. Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said the comments needed to be set in a wider economic context.
“Of course fixing the skills system and better back-to-work support will help, but that isn’t a quick fix.
“We currently have a broader shortage of people – not a few specific shortages. Labour would cause problems for its own growth goal by restricting firms from access to workers where the alternative might be work going elsewhere.
“There’s also a risk of lower competitiveness as firms struggle to meet their needs. There was however some hint of understanding the scale of the issue in the shadow home secretary’s comments about workforce planning.
“Businesses do need to step up on skills, and reform of the [apprenticeship] levy is essential to that.
“Working together with business to ensure any link between skills investment and visas acknowledges we need both at different times. No firm should be left without a skill or visa option to meet its needs.”
The CBI said it would support a stronger link between labour shortages and training, but that this should be “a key part of a more honest conversation about immigration”.
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Last week, Reform UK said it would introduce an ‘employer immigration tax’ requiring most employers to pay a 20% rate of national insurance when employing foreign workers, compared with 13.8% for British nationals.
