The Labour Party of the United Kingdom has found itself walking a rhetorical tightrope as it pushes strict immigration reforms demanded by voters while calling its right-wing rivals’ policies “racist” and “immoral.”
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer escalated his attacks against the rising Reform UK over the weekend, telling the BBC that the party’s proposal to end indefinite leave to remain, or ILR, — the right to live, work and even collect benefits in the U.K. without citizenship — is a bigoted policy.
“I do think it’s a racist policy, I do think it’s immoral — it needs to be called out for what it is,” Starmer said. “It’s one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here, I’m up for that. It’s completely different thing to say we’re going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them.”
“I love and have pride in my country and want to serve the whole of our country — our beautiful, tolerant, diverse country,” he said. “They [Reform UK] want to tear that country apart. What was said last week about deporting migrants who are lawfully here, who have been here for years, working in our hospitals and our schools, running businesses, our neighbors … and Reform say they want to deport them — that would tear our country apart.”
Starmer sharpened his attacks on Reform UK leader Nigel Farage on Sunday, accusing him of spending more time “grubbing around in America, trying to make money for himself” than “representing his constituents.”
“He goes there not just to make money, but to talk our country down. The leader of a political party going to another country to talk his own country down,” Starmer told the Sunday Mirror.
Starmer was reportedly driven to take a more aggressive stand against Reform UK following Farage’s announcement last week that his party would end ILR and require migrants to reapply for stricter visas.
“I think Keir was fed up of always being on the defensive and needed to go on the offensive,” a Cabinet minister told the Independent.
Reform UK is currently sitting at the top of public opinion polls in the U.K., with 31% support compared to Labour’s 20%. The establishment right-wing party, the Conservatives, have collapsed in support to just 17%.
Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll carried out this month found that Starmer is suffering the lowest approval ratings of any British prime minister on record, with 79% of people unsatisfied with his performance.
Starmer has tried for months to straighten the ship and regain public approval by pivoting against mass immigration. He warned in May that the U.K. is risking becoming “an island of strangers.” However, such a dramatic change in rhetoric for a formerly pro-migration politician has proved difficult. Starmer apologized for the “island of strangers” comment in June.
Most recently, Starmer announced new digital identification cards for migrant workers, acknowledging that many are “worried about the level of illegal migration into this country.”
“This government will make a new free-of-charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this Parliament,” he said at the Global Progress Action Summit in London. “Let me spell that out: You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”
The unpopularity of the current immigration system became impossible to ignore following the success of the “Unite the Kingdom” march in London this month, a demonstration against mass migration that drew a crowd of approximately 150,000 protesters.
It’s worth noting that the “Unite the Kingdom” rally was not organized by Reform UK, but instead by activist Tommy Robinson and his Advance UK party. Robinson’s party, while similarly anti-immigration, is explicitly antagonistic toward Reform UK and Farage.
Secretary of State for the Home Department Shabana Mahmood touched on the rally during her Tuesday speech at the Labour conference. She compared some in the “Unite the Kingdom” milieu to the “skinheads and Paki bashers of old.”
“While not everyone chanted racist slogans, some did. Clear that in their view of this country, I have no place,” she said.
Mahmood promised to “do whatever it takes to secure our borders” and announced that Labour would make it more difficult for individuals not already in the country to obtain permanent residency.
She also unveiled a wide-ranging slate of reforms to immigration processes in the U.K., including requirements for proficient English language skills, employment, a clean criminal record, and volunteer work in one’s community.
Reform UK has embraced Labour’s attacks, telling its voters to consider the accusations of racism as targeted at themselves.
“If somebody is voting for a policy that Starmer calls racist, what do you think Starmer thinks of you?” Zia Yusuf, the party’s policy chief, asked in reaction to Starmer.
Farage said he believes the rhetorical pivot is evidence that the government is in a “blind panic” at its tanking support. He questioned how Labour can consider Reform UK bigoted while moving closer to the party’s policies.
“If you even criticize any element of the immigration policies of the last two governments, you’re racist — and yet, the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, tries to copy our policies,” Farage said in a video posted to social media on Monday. “They are all over the place, they are at sea.”
“They’ve resorted to abuse, they don’t deserve your trust,” he continued. “You’re not racist, you’re sensible. You’ve grown up, you know what’s right for this country and its people.”
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Starmer’s government is not required to call the next general election until 2029.
Farage has expressed belief that public disapproval and political pressures will force an early election.
