Keir Starmer slams 'racist' Reform immigration policy - 'they are our neighbours'

Keir Starmer has torn into Reform UK's "racist" plan to axe the main route to citizenship for people who came to Britain legally.

The Prime Minister said Nigel Farage's bid to scrap indefinite leave to remain (ILR) would "rip this country apart", adding: "They are our neighbours". Speaking to the BBC on the first day of Labour conference, Mr Starmer said the policy needed to be called out as he went studs up against Reform.

He said: "Well, I do think that it is a racist policy. I do think it is immoral. It needs to be called out for what it is."

Asked if Reform are trying to appeal to racists, he said: "No, I think there are plenty of people who either vote Reform or are thinking of voting Reform who are frustrated.

"They had 14 years of failure under the Conservatives, they want us to change things. They may have voted Labour a year ago, and they want the change to come more quickly. I actually do understand that."

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He had earlier said: "It is 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 is a completely different thing to say we are going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and start removing them. They are our neighbours.

"They're people who work in our economy. They are part of who we are. It will rip this country apart."

Reform said last week that the party would axe ILR if they were elected - putting hundreds of thousands of people legally settled in the UK at risk. Mr Farage claimed he was targeting around 800,000 who will become eligible in the next few years and who arrived between 2020 and 2024.

There was a surge in legal migration under Boris Johnson's Government, driven partly by a rise in the number of non-EU citizens coming to Britain. The figure fell sharply last year after stricter migration rules came into force.

Unions representing health workers have warned the policy could push the NHS and care sector to the brink. NHS figures earlier this year showed a fifth of current NHS staff were recruited from overseas. Out of 1.5million employees, 311,000 had a nationality other than British.

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