UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer plans to reform immigration policies in response to a record 906,000 net migrants in 2023. He criticized the previous government's liberalization of immigration, vowed to target over-reliant sectors, and proposed stricter measures, including employer penalties and deportations of failed asylum seekers. A deal with Iraq was also announced.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is determined to overhaul the country’s immigration policies in response to a sharp rise in net migration figures.

On November 28, 2023, Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, criticized the previous government following the release of updated statistics from the independent Office for National Statistics. The revised figures revealed a record high of 906,000 net migrants to the UK for the year leading up to June 2023.

Starmer expressed strong disapproval, stating that the failure reflected in these figures was not a matter of bad luck or a global trend, but rather a deliberate decision. "This is a different order of failure. This happened by design, not accident," he said. "Policies were reformed intentionally to liberalize immigration. Brexit was used for that purpose to turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders."

Between 2021 and 2023, many of those entering the UK did so to fill gaps in the British workforce. In response, Starmer, who is now the newly elected Prime Minister, pledged to target industries that are overly reliant on immigration. His proposed reforms to the points-based immigration system would include measures to restrict employers who refuse to hire locally and instead rely on overseas labor.

Additionally, Starmer hinted at further actions to address the situation, including the potential for more deportations of foreign nationals whose asylum claims have been rejected. He also revealed that a new deal had been signed with Iraq, which could lead to increased returns of failed asylum seekers.