Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is facing questions from MPs on the government's plans to cut migration - watch live at the top of this page
Plans to introduce English tests for all visa applicants and reducing overseas recruitment of care workers are among the proposals - here's more on what's in the White Paper
Earlier today, Keir Starmer said the new measures would mean net migration falls "significantly" over the next four years
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Labour "can't be trusted" to protect UK borders, while Reform leader Nigel Farage accused Starmer of "making promises he can't keep"
The measures aim to reduce legal migration, which makes up the majority of migration to the UK. It doesn't include addressing small boat crossings, or other ways people arrive in the UK without permission - see the figures here
Starmer: 'Migration will fall - that's a promise'
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is making a statement in the House of Commons on the government's plans to cut migration.
After, she will take questions on the proposals from MPs.
There will be no regular text updates, but you can follow all the action in the Commons by tapping watch live at the top of this page.
Matt Spivey
Live editor
Keir Starmer has promised to cut net migration to the UK, as he unveiled the government's proposals to "tighten up" every part of the immigration system.
English tests for all visa applicants and an extended route to settled status, from five to 10 years, are just two of the planned changes.
His early morning announcement, and subsequent release of a White Paper outlining the plans, has sparked some criticism.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch claimed Labour "can't be trusted" to protect our borders. Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said Starmer is making "promises he can’t keep".
We heard from care home managers, business developers and a graduate about what they made of Starmer's promise.
Later this afternoon, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will make a statement and take questions from MPs in the House of Commons.
We won't be providing live text updates, but you'll be able to follow along right here by pressing watch live at the top of the page.
In the meantime, we have plenty across the BBC to keep you covered on this story:
By Anthony Reuben
Earlier, Keir Starmer was asked if he was worried about the impact of his immigration plan on his top priority: economic growth.
He responded that despite high migration, growth had been stagnant over the past four years.
It is difficult to read much into the growth figures for 2021 or 2022 because of the impact of the pandemic and post-Covid recovery.
But the PM is right that 2023 and 2024 had high net migration and low economic growth by historical standards.
However, it’s not possible just to isolate the impact of migration on growth. Other major factors, such as the war in Ukraine, affected growth in those years.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) - an independent body that scrutinises the public finances - says that increased migration generally boosts economic growth. They add that “the size of this impact and the effect on per person living standards is highly uncertain”, external.
The OBR’s point about growth per person is important because the government has made growth in this measure a key priority. Growth per person fell in 2023 and was flat in 2024., external
The Labour MP who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee says "chasing the tail of the right" could put the UK on "a very dark path".
In a post on the social media platform Bluesky, Sarah Owen writes: "Fair and sensible checks on immigration should not equal blaming all the woes of our country on immigrants, rather than the failures of those in power for the last 14 years."
"I am proud of what immigrants like my mum and those across Luton North have given to our country."
"Many serve in our NHS, open [businesses], enrich culture/arts and much more. The best way to avoid becoming an ‘island of strangers’ is investing in communities to thrive - not pitting people against each other," she adds.
Mark Easton
Home editor
Polling in the last 10 days suggests significant public opposition to the idea of cutting the number of care workers coming from overseas.
The survey by British Future, a self-described non-partisan think tank tracking UK attitudes to immigration, indicates that 71% of adults don’t think reducing visas for care workers is the answer to reducing immigration. Only 22% agree.
The poll, conducted by Focaldata, says 50% of people in Britain want lower immigration compared with 45% who don’t want it reduced.
Focaldata surveyed a nationally-representative sample of 1,085 adults, with an additional boost of 510 people who voted Labour in the 2024 General Election.
The finding suggests a much more nuanced debate than is often portrayed.
Of those who want migration cut – only 4% said they wanted to cut people coming to work or study. 49% said they should cut the number coming by irregular means like small boats. Small boat arrivals make up about 3% of total immigration.
A majority of people don’t want cuts for any category of worker. The only occupation group in which more than a third of those polled wanted fewer people coming from overseas was bankers (37%), but slightly more than half of people (54%) said they didn’t agree with that idea.
Simon from Hawkhurst, Hertfordshire, tells BBC Radio 5 Live there's a "reservoir gap" of people in the UK who are economically inactive and the government should "get behind" them.
He says it's important to look at where the UK's unemployment is coming from, and help those who really want to work.
He urges the government to "look for solutions instead of getting at each others throats and blaming each other for the immigration problem we've got".
Image source, Getty ImagesIn the White Paper, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says that in summer, the government will lay out further changes to the asylum system and border security.
This is "in response to irregular and illegal migration", she writes. The plans for new legislation will build on new measures set out in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill that is currently passing through Parliament.
The White Paper also makes clear that later in the year we can expect stronger measures ensuring laws are upheld.
This will include "streamlining and speeding up the removals process", giving the Home Office the ability to more easily invoke removal action and take away visas "in a much wider range of crimes".
It will involve crimes where a noncustodial sentence has been given, not just those than end with prison time.
By Rob England
Net migration refers to the number of people who arrive in the UK over a period of time, minus the number who leave.
In recent years, this number has reached “unprecedented levels,” according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), peaking at 906,000 in the year to June 2023, external.
According to the ONS, the increase has been driven by a number of factors:
There are signs that net migration is starting to decrease from its peak, as the chart below shows.
This follows measures implemented by previous Conservative governments to restrict the number of “dependants” – usually family members of the person applying to come to the UK - that visa applicants can bring with them.
Image source, PA MediaThe prime minister's announcement today "will damage our economy, the NHS, social care and our universities," Scottish First Minister John Swinney says.
In a post on X, he adds that the measures ignore the "need to boost Scotland's working age population".
He adds: "This sort of divisive language only plays into Nigel Farage’s hands. Not in Scotland’s name."
Farrukh from Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire, says it's "hurtful" to hear a Labour politician "talk in this kind of language" regarding immigration.
He tells BBC Radio 5 Live how he came to the UK as a student, paying high overseas tuition fees and trained to be a secondary school teacher - which he did for ten years.
"I'm integrated in every respect. Most of my friends are British," he says.
Farrukh says care workers are doing "excellent work" and doesn't understand why the government is targeting them.
"I've always voted Labour, but never again," he says, describing Keir Starmer's language as "populist".
"Immigration has to be manageable, but don't target the people who are coming here legally," he adds.
Alison Holt
Social affairs editor
Image source, Getty ImagesSocial care has been juggling underfunding, staff shortages and growing demand from an ageing population for years.
It is increasingly complex work, yet staff are often on the minimum or just above the minimum wage.
And even with overseas recruitment, there were still 131,000 vacancies in social care in England last year.
The government says it is closing the care visa system because it wants to more people recruited in the UK and it is planning a fair pay agreement for care staff.
But Dr Jane Townson of the Homecare Association says the government is closing the visa scheme “in a vacuum”, as a pay agreement with staff is a long way off, and there is “no plan to deliver the care workers our country needs.”
At a time when the NHS is struggling, social care is more important than ever as it can keep vulnerable people out of hospital and support patients when they return home.
Alex Emery
BBC News
Keir Starmer has said the government will cut the recruitment of overseas care workers.
Kristy Smith is a former care home manager from Ipswich, and says carers are highly skilled, and they should stop being referred to as unskilled workers.
After working as a carer for 17 years, Kristy moved in to training new carers. She then worked as a care home manager for five years before illness forced her to leave her job.
“It takes skill to make people feel safe, loved and protected," she says.
Kristy tells the BBC that she agrees "we should be looking at who comes into the country" and people should be able to speak English.
But to be a carer, she says "you either have that in your heart or you don’t. We don’t want human robots washing bodies."
“How would the government feel lying in bed, soiled, unable to move, and the person looking after them is only there to get their benefits.”
Image source, Kristy SmithKris Bramwell
BBC News
Jeff Tsao, 37, is a business intelligence developer originally from Taiwan. He lives in Sheffield.
Speaking to the BBC, Tsao says he went through the visa process for more than six years, eventually gaining citizenship.
“I have paid the government over £10,000 including Immigration Health Surcharge fees. If I started the process now, it would have been over £15,000," he explains.
“This is a huge burden just for one."
He says as a young adult, he rarely used NHS services and worked full time, paying tax, which he says is double tax for immigrants.
"This is extremely unfair for those people like me who work hard to contribute to this country.”
Image source, Jeff TsaoWe've been hearing a lot of reaction today to the government's immigration White Paper. It was published this morning - here are the key points:
Read more detail: Labour's immigration plans at a glance.
Branwen Jeffreys
Education editor
The suggested levy on the money universities in England generate from international students is effectively a new tax which is why details will be in the Budget this autumn.
This would apply to universities in England only because each part of the UK sets its own education policy even though immigration rules are UK wide.
To get some idea of scale, it’s worth holding in mind that international students spending their money on tuition fees and living costs account for more than £20 billion of exports.
These plans will send shockwaves through universities already adjusting to an almost 16% fall in international students coming to the UK for this academic year, after a tightening of rules under the previous government.
Universities UK, a charity that represents higher education institutions, urged the government to think carefully about the impact of the levy. By this summer 43% of universities in England are expecting to be in deficit.
Today’s plans also suggest shortening the amount of time graduates can stay on in the UK after they finish studying from 2-3 years to 18 months.
That means to stay on they would need to shift to a different kind of visa based on their employment.
The home affairs spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, Lisa Smart, says the government is right in "taking steps to fix our broken immigration system".
"After the previous Conservative government's dire mismanagement, our immigration system has been left in tatters and public trust has been shattered," Smart says.
But, she warns, that the government must have a "clear plan" to make it easier to recruit British workers to fill vacancies instead, "to ensure these changes don't have unintended consequences for our economy".
By Rob England
It’s important to know that most of the changes announced by the government today only affect legal migration.
This primarily includes people that are issued with visas to allow them to come to the UK for work or study.
Illegal or "irregular" migration, as seen in the chart below, however, refers to individuals arriving in the UK without permission, mainly via small boats across English Channel.
As the chart below shows, the vast majority of immigration to the UK occurs legally through work and study visas.
In 2024, small boat arrivals accounted for only about 4% of the total immigrant population.
Image source, UK ParliamentCo-leader of the Green party, Carla Denyer, says the government is "actively making things worse" with its latest rules on migration.
Writing on X, she accuses Prime Minister Keir Starmer of impersonating Nigel Farage, adding this "won't save him from wipeout at the hands of Reform".
Instead of stopping the recruitment of overseas carers, which she says is an already-stretched caring sector, pay and conditions need to be increased to help with recruitment of British people into carer roles.
In addition, carer visas should be made more flexible to reduce exploitation.
"Ultimately, migration shouldn’t be managed by the same government department as crime and domestic security.
"It should be its own department - with a focus on community cohesion, infrastructure, and the country’s real economic needs," she adds.
Image source, EPABy Anthony Reuben
It is not entirely clear how we will be able to tell if this plan has worked.
Keir Starmer said in his briefing: “This plan means migration will fall – that’s a promise.”
That’s not a big change from his party’s manifesto, which said: “Labour will reduce net migration."
Asked about whether this would mean a fall every year, Starmer replied: “I’m promising it will fall significantly, and I do want to get it down by the end of the Parliament significantly.”
But “significantly” is not measurable and he declined to give any actual targets, citing the failure of previous caps and quotas.
For example, in 2010 the Conservatives pledged to reduce net migration to “tens of thousands”.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, which carries out the government’s forecasts, said in March that it was expecting net migration to fall “sharply”., external
They predict a fall from 728,000 in the year to mid-2024 to 258,000 in the year to mid-2027, before rising to 340,000 in 2029-30.
Simon Jones
BBC reporter
Refugee charity Care4Calais, who provide humanitarian aid in northern France and the UK, accuse the prime minister of "fanning the fire of the far-right" by using language like "an island of strangers" to discuss immigration.
Care4Calais CEO, Steve Smith, said: "This is dangerous language for any Prime Minister to use. Has Starmer forgotten last year's far-right riots?
"Shameful language like this will only inflame the fire of the far-right and risks further race riots that endanger survivors of horrors such as war, torture and modern slavery. Starmer must apologise."
