Serious fall in immigration is ‘NOT guaranteed’ by Labour’s plans, warn government’s own advisers

A SERIOUS fall in immigration is “not guaranteed” by Labour’s plans, the government’s own advisers warned yesterday.

Sir Keir Starmer has promised to cut net migration numbers after they reached a record 906,000 last year.

A blueprint in the New Year will launch measures to train more Brits for jobs to reduce the reliance on foreign labour.

But the Migration Advisory Committee said this was a “worthwhile policy in its own right but does not guarantee a substantial reduction in the reliance on the immigration system itself.”

It suggested more individual curbs be considered, as some sector-wide shortages like construction were driven by other factors, such as pay and conditions.

However MAC chairman Professor Brian Bell said he expects net migration to settle at around 300,000 within the next few years.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday accused the Tories of creating an “incentive” for bosses to hire from abroad on the cheap.

She said: “The policies that were introduced by the previous government after the Brexit implementation ended up having things like a 20 per cent discount for wages for overseas recruitment.

“I just think that was completely the wrong approach.

“It actually encouraged undercutting, it was an incentive for overseas recruitment rather than an incentive to recruit or train in the UK.”

Ms Cooper also rejected calls to remove overseas students from the migration figures.