Gabrielle Wilde
Guest Reporter
Sir Keir Starmer faced intense questioning from GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope today, after notably excluding immigration from his six "milestone missions" for Britain's future.
The Prime Minister's omission came just days after he had criticised the Conservative Party over what he termed an "open borders experiment".
Despite immigration not featuring as a central pillar of his premiership plans, Starmer was pressed to defend his stance on border security and migration targets during his appearance at Pinewood Studios.
During questions, Christopher asked him: "Prime Minister on secure borders, your plan is to reduce net migration and reduce overall small boat crossings.
"GB News viewers will be saying simply, is that it? Why can't you stop the boats and cut down migration to under 100,000 is it because you can't or you don't want to? Can you afford all this with no more big tax rises?"
Starmer responded: "Look, Chris, we are going to drive down migration, both illegal and legal. That will only be done with a serious plan.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
"We had a gimmick for a number of years called Rwanda. And what happened? The numbers went up, we wasted a lot of money, £700 million, removing four volunteers to Rwanda. It didn't work.
"The only way to make it work is to smash the gangs that are running the vile trade. That's why we've invested so much in setting up the command that is needed to do that.
"As you know, there was a very significant arrest just the other week in relation to the work that we are doing. That is how you do it.
"That is serious. That is a government that absolutely is getting to grips with this. Same on legal migration. We had you invite me to put an arbitrary number on it. For 14 years we had an arbitrary number under the previous government.
"They said it was a hard cap, It wasn't hard and it wasn't a cap. The net result of their deliberate policies was that migration went up four times, staggering those figures of last year.
"So we will not be following that approach. We're going to do this in a serious way to take migration down. And I think that's what the British public want, a serious plan to ensure we've got control of our borders, not arbitrary caps, not gimmicks.
"Because if we learnt one thing from the last 14 years, they have the opposite of the desired effect."
Starmer's milestone missions focused on key areas of national development, excluding immigration concerns.
The Labour leader outlined plans to kickstart economic growth and build an NHS fit for the future.
His missions included a pledge to construct 1.5 million homes and significantly reduce hospital waiting lists.
The plan also promised to deliver 13,000 additional police officers and improve educational standards for young Britons.
Making Britain a clean energy superpower and breaking down barriers to opportunity rounded out his six-point vision. The missions emphasised domestic infrastructure and public services, with Starmer committing to accelerate the UK's path to Net Zero.
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The Prime Minister's omission came just days after he had criticised the Conservative Party over what he termed an "open borders experiment".
Despite immigration not featuring as a central pillar of his premiership plans, Starmer was pressed to defend his stance on border security and migration targets during his appearance at Pinewood Studios.
During questions, Christopher asked him: "Prime Minister on secure borders, your plan is to reduce net migration and reduce overall small boat crossings.
"GB News viewers will be saying simply, is that it? Why can't you stop the boats and cut down migration to under 100,000 is it because you can't or you don't want to? Can you afford all this with no more big tax rises?"
Starmer responded: "Look, Chris, we are going to drive down migration, both illegal and legal. That will only be done with a serious plan.
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"We had a gimmick for a number of years called Rwanda. And what happened? The numbers went up, we wasted a lot of money, £700 million, removing four volunteers to Rwanda. It didn't work.
"The only way to make it work is to smash the gangs that are running the vile trade. That's why we've invested so much in setting up the command that is needed to do that.
"As you know, there was a very significant arrest just the other week in relation to the work that we are doing. That is how you do it.
"That is serious. That is a government that absolutely is getting to grips with this. Same on legal migration. We had you invite me to put an arbitrary number on it. For 14 years we had an arbitrary number under the previous government.
"They said it was a hard cap, It wasn't hard and it wasn't a cap. The net result of their deliberate policies was that migration went up four times, staggering those figures of last year.
"So we will not be following that approach. We're going to do this in a serious way to take migration down. And I think that's what the British public want, a serious plan to ensure we've got control of our borders, not arbitrary caps, not gimmicks.
"Because if we learnt one thing from the last 14 years, they have the opposite of the desired effect."
Starmer's milestone missions focused on key areas of national development, excluding immigration concerns.
The Labour leader outlined plans to kickstart economic growth and build an NHS fit for the future.
His missions included a pledge to construct 1.5 million homes and significantly reduce hospital waiting lists.
The plan also promised to deliver 13,000 additional police officers and improve educational standards for young Britons.
Making Britain a clean energy superpower and breaking down barriers to opportunity rounded out his six-point vision. The missions emphasised domestic infrastructure and public services, with Starmer committing to accelerate the UK's path to Net Zero.
Find Out More...