Labour has refused to set specific targets on how far it wants to reduce net migration to the UK should it win the general election.
Speaking with BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said the party wants to see “significant changes” and is clear that net migration “must come down”.
But she stopped short of setting a target, saying the Conservatives failed when they had done so and “variations”, such as the war in Ukraine, must also be considered. Cooper also declined to rule out offshore processing or sending asylum seekers to have their claims processed abroad.
Labour’s bid to encroach on traditional Tory territory came as health secretary Victoria Atkins outlined moves to boost community care and help make the NHS “faster, simpler and fairer”.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s migration plan will include passing laws to force employers to train more Britons.
Last year’s net migration figure of 685,000 has “got to come down”, Starmer told The Sun on Sunday, vowing to “control our borders” and ensure UK firms “are helped to hire Brits first”.
Pledges to reduce net migration to the tens of thousands have been repeatedly made by Conservative politicians, including by Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron when he was leader.
Cooper told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We’re not setting a target and the reason for that is… every time the Conservatives have done this, frankly, then they have just ended up being totally all over the place, ripping it up and discredited the whole system.”
She added: “Also, because from one year to another, there are variations. So, for example, the pandemic means the net migration figures, of course, fell, but the homes for Ukraine visa rightly meant that the figures increased because of the war in Ukraine.”
Pushed for an estimate on how far Labour want to lower migration, she said: “We clearly want to see significant changes in place because we have seen the numbers treble.”
She added: “I know that you’re effectively trying to suggest I set a target or a broad target, I’m not going to do that. We are going to be clear, net migration must come down.”
Former Tory immigration minister Robert Jenrick was sceptical of Starmer’s pledges, writing on X: “He doesn’t want to reduce immigration or stop the boats. Never did. Never will.”