On Monday, British prime minister Keir Starmer stood in front a room full of journalists in Downing Street and announced his Government’s new crackdown on legal immigration.
Standing before a row of nodding Cabinet members, the Labour leader solemnly declared that Britain’s “experiment is over” with mass immigration before repeatedly cited the old Brexit slogan about “taking back control” of Britain’s borders.
The British government says its new white paper on immigration is about restoring control and creating a system which “promotes growth but is controlled and managed”.
But how did a man, who previously opposed Brexit, called for the return of free movement between Britain and the EU, and who said “we welcome migrants, we don’t scapegoat them”, change his views so radically?
How does Starmer justify this U-turn on migration? What has changed for legal migrants planning to work or study in the UK?
And can the Labour leader get away with taking a position at odds with many of his own MPs and Labour supporters?
Today on The Irish Times In The News podcast, London correspondent Mark Paul discusses the implications of the British prime minister’s new hardline approach to immigration.
Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Declan Conlon.
