Last week, Starmer announced new restrictions on immigration, with the stated aim of “securing Britain’s borders and future”.
Under these new measures, migrants now need to spend a minimum of ten years in the country before being allowed to apply for settlement, unless they can show “a real and lasting contribution to the economy and society”.
Other new restrictions include raising the education requirements for job sponsorships, ending the care worker visa scheme (see below), and raising the English proficiency requirements.
In his speech announcing this, Starmer directly attacked the Tories for being too lax on immigration, and that after their “experiment with open borders” Labour is “shutting down the lab”.
Scandalously, Starmer evoked the infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech given by Tory MP Enoch Powell in 1968, as he declared that “we risk becoming an island of strangers”, due to rising immigration.
The Prime Minister imitating Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech is sickening.
That speech fuelled decades of racism and division. Echoing it today is a disgrace. It adds to anti-migrant rhetoric that puts lives at risk.
Shame on you, Keir Starmer. pic.twitter.com/rQcMf6T1eo
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) May 12, 2025
Flanked from the right
After a disastrous set of local election results, where Labour lost vast swathes of council seats (and one parliamentary seat) to Reform, Starmer pledged “we’ve got to deliver that change more quickly and go further than we’ve gone so far”.
What he meant by that is clear: he will intensify his strategy of trying to outflank Farage and the Tories from the right, aping their anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Recognising this, Farage said that Starmer is “playing catch up with Reform”, and that “many of the things he’s said, are the same things I’ve been saying for 20 years”. He isn’t wrong.
A recent poll found that, should a general election be held today, Reform would win 411 seats on 32 percent of the vote, compared to Labour who would win just 48 seats, on 22 percent of the vote.
🚨 BREAKING | Reform lead by 10pts 😱
🟦 REF – 32% (+9)
🔴 LAB – 22% (4)
🔵 CON – 19% (-5)
🟠 LD – 13% (-1)
🟢 GRN – 9% (+1)Via @BMGResearch, 6-8 May (+/ vs 26-27 Mar) pic.twitter.com/pN9DS0bXfn
— Stats for Lefties 🍉🏳️⚧️ (@LeftieStats) May 9, 2025
In contrast to what some on the left claim, this rise of Reform isn’t down to a sudden shift to the right.
In fact, a recent YouGov survey found that the largest reason that 2024 Labour voters have abandoned the party is their removal of the winter fuel allowance, which is 35 percent. Next is the cost of living (33 percent), ailing public services (26 percent), and broken promises (25 percent).
Only 18 percent of respondents cited concerns about immigration when surveyed.
As much as Labour tries to make it about immigration, their collapse in support is far more due to their attacks on the most vulnerable in society – through vicious austerity measures that make even Tories blush, as Starmer loyally carries out the diktats of the billionaires.
Flanked from the left
It isn’t just Reform that has gained at Labour’s expense, the Green Party also gained councillors in the recent elections. And one recent poll suggests that 43 percent of 2024 Labour voters may vote Green in the next election.
In particular, they have gained a lot of support amongst young people who are ‘economically insecure’.
This process isn’t isolated to other parties, it is also finding an expression within the Labour party.
Around 100 Labour MPs sent a secret letter to the chief whip asking for Starmer’s cuts to welfare to be toned down.
One anonymous MP said that:
“There is a feeling that some of these welfare reforms are not what Labour stands for. Yes, we are the party of work, but reducing the support system for people who can’t help themselves doesn’t feel right.”
This growing opposition isn’t just from the left-wing MPs, but from the much larger layer of middling MPs who, on the basis of events, are being pushed to stand against Starmer’s programme.
A combination of anxiety about keeping their seats, as well as pressure from furious constituents, will push more and more of these MPs into opposition against the right-wing leadership.
As Labour’s popularity sinks to new depths, it may be the case that there are greater mutinies within the party down the line, particularly with growing threats on both the left and the right.
Revolution against the billionaires
Both the rise of Reform and the increased support of groups such as the Greens are different expressions of the same underlying process.
As the crisis and decline of British capitalism is more acutely felt, there is a growing anti-establishment mood, that something is fundamentally wrong with society and that there needs to be some kind of radical change.
In the absence of a viable, revolutionary alternative, this has allowed figures such as Farage to fill a part of this vacuum for a certain period.
We need a mass revolutionary party that can cut across divisive culture war rhetoric with class politics; that can connect with the anti-establishment mood, not through aping the right-wing, but by explaining that our real enemies are the bankers, bosses, and billionaires.
This is what we are setting out to do at the Revolutionary Communist Party. We are building a force that can put an end to this sick system for good.
Who cares about the carers?
Anonymous carers’ charity worker
Starmer’s latest attempt to win over votes lost in the local elections is another demonstration of his total disregard for the poor and vulnerable, for whom carers are a lifeline to lead an independent life.
Following hot on the heels of reductions to PIP and winter fuel payments, the reduction of overseas visas for carers, and the promise by the Labour home secretary to “end care worker recruitment from abroad” will affect the most vulnerable in our society.
How are the ill or disabled people expected to carry out the daily chores of washing, dressing, eating without a carer?
And do the 5.8 million unpaid carers not deserve a break from their caring responsibilities to enjoy a cup of tea, have a haircut, go to the dentist, while a paid carer looks after their loved one?
And all this to what end – apart from a publicity stunt? The government’s own website shows a decline of 91 percent in Health and Care Worker visas from 145,923 in 2023 to 9,539 in 2024.
1.2 million carers live in poverty. Starmer would rather spend money on weapons to slaughter and maim innocents abroad, than to fund a care service at home.
Did we really think Labour would be better than the Tories?
Migration: No bar too low for Starmer
Elena Simon, Sheffield
Ten years for citizenship, language tests for children, and other crazy policies… One wonders who was paid to participate in the focus group on this one.
Migrants are already living precarious lives: in good British imperialist tradition we are taxed without representation, visas are expensive, and our status is a digit in the hands of the Home Office (there are few places that inspire less confidence about data security than a UK government server).
In his latest uninspired speech, Starmer went on to say that the immigration system “encourages some businesses to bring in lower-paid workers rather than invest in our young people”.
But who was it again who refused to abolish the two-child benefit cap and to invest in education and instead cut basic social security for the most vulnerable in society, funds the bombing of children, and fuels a culture war against minorities?
It’s the capitalists’ race to the bottom, and attacks of worker’s rights and conditions – not immigration – driving down wages. For full democratic rights for migrants and open borders!
