Downing Street rejects plan for legal migration cap

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Downing Street has rejected proposals to set a firm immigration target as officials weigh options for legislation to reduce the number of people coming to the UK. 

Despite Sir Keir Starmer previously saying he did not want a migration cap, senior officials had been considering the suggestion — promoted by some within government and by Labour-supporting think-tanks — of imposing a hard limit for inward migration numbers, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. 

Under an alternative proposal that has been greenlit, ministers will force employers that hire for mid-skilled roles such as construction or social care to demonstrate that they or their sector body have a plan to train and recruit British workers, the people said.

This proposal for “a tightly controlled framework” for jobs below graduate level will form part of plans to be published next month, some of which will require legislation, they added. 

Lowering the number of migrants entering Britain is seen as key by Labour to see off the challenge from the anti-immigration Reform UK party in some of its northern seats.

Nigel Farage’s party, which has overtaken Labour in opinion polls, wants a freeze on all non-essential migration, while the opposition Conservatives have also said they would introduce an annual cap on net migration.

The previous Tory government had a legal limit for migration, though it was never met.

“We will learn lessons from the disaster of the Tories who set arbitrary targets they never met,” said one senior official. “We won’t make the same mistake.”

Business groups have warned that requirements for migrants to have high salaries or to pay large fees were choking off the flow of talent to the UK and imperilling the government’s growth agenda.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves signalled last month that she would seek to expand the use of visas for the “highest skilled people” in sectors such as AI and life sciences.

But Starmer is also facing pressure from dozens of Labour MPs who face a potential challenge from Reform and want the prime minister to take a tougher stance on the issue. Meanwhile, Labour Together — a think-tank with close links to Starmer’s administration — proposed the UK should set clear targets for inward migration late last year.

In a letter to cabinet ministers last week, Starmer stated that politics had “ended up being too scared to say what is obvious — that some people are genuine refugees and some aren’t; that people coming here to work can be a positive, but that an island nation needs to control its borders”.

While there was early support from officials in Downing Street to introduce some kind of targets for use of different visa routes, the idea has now been ruled out, according to multiple people briefed on the matter.

The proposal to make access to visas contingent on training domestic workers was included in Labour’s manifesto before the election and home secretary Yvette Cooper has repeatedly said it will be central to the government’s approach to work-related migration. 

The government has not yet set out what restrictions individual employers will face if they or their sector is seen to be making insufficient effort. 

The vast majority of visas granted to lower skilled workers since 2022 have been in the adult social care sector, where employer groups have already set out workforce plans, though they have warned that recruitment problems are unlikely to be resolved without increased government funding. 

The government’s Migration Advisory Committee warned last year that boosting skills in the domestic workforce would not necessarily lead to a drop in overseas recruitment. This would apply if employers were using the visa system because they could not pay enough to tempt UK applicants, it said. 

It has also flagged the risk that people arrive in the UK on a graduate visa that allows them to stay for two years after completing a degree, before switching to a low-pay visa once their time runs out.

About one in five people on graduate visas were switching to visas that allow them to work in the social care sector, compared with just 6 per cent of domestic graduates who enter low-paid service sector work, it found. The MAC added that there was some evidence that people were visa-switching in order to get settled status in the UK.

The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.