Sir Keir Starmer dismisses demands for migrant cap – despite net arrivals hitting almost 1million

SIR Keir Starmer has dismissed demands for an yearly migration headdress — contempt nett arrivals hitting astir a cardinal past year.

But helium pledged to slash the record-breaking influx by ending our “hopeless reliance” connected overseas workers.

The PM promised a visa crackdown past nighttime astatine a panicked property league aft nett migration was revealed to person deed 906,000 successful 2023.

He accused the erstwhile Tory administration of “running an unfastened borders experiment”, with the numbers quadrupling since 2019.

Declaring immigration “the issue” for voters, helium blasted: “That’s unforgivable. And people my words — this authorities volition crook the page.”

Yet Sir Keir batted distant calls for a fixed bounds connected arrivals, insisting an “arbitrary cap” would not work.

It risks leaving him outflanked by Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, who some backmost an precocious limit.

Instead helium promised reforms to visa routes successful sectors hooked connected overseas labour — forcing bosses to bid Brits — and tightening “soft touch” employment laws.

Precise details were scant, with the PM pledging a afloat blueprint to chopped numbers “imminently”.

The one-time Remainer besides blamed the Conservatives for squandering the Brexit accidental of reining successful migration.

The hastily arranged code came pursuing a melodramatic revision of past year’s nett migration figures.

In May the Office for National Statistics (ONS) enactment the 2022-23 full astatine 740,000 — but yesterday admitted it had underestimated that by 166,000.

Meanwhile this year’s nett migration figures, from June 2023 to June 2024, basal astatine 728,000.

In that clip 1.2million radical arrived successful the UK — chiefly via ineligible routes but besides successful tiny boats — and 479,000 left.

That 20 per cent autumn successful yearly nett migration was mostly driven by measures imposed by the past Tory government.

They see a ban connected attraction workers bringing family to the UK, and besides a higher wage threshold for overseas employees.

The ONS said that though precocious by “historic standards”, nett migration is “beginning to fall”.

But with numbers the size of a metropolis similar Liverpool, yesterday’s figures inactive sparked calls for action.

Nigel Farage said the levels of migration were “horrendous” and expressed fury astatine the “impact it’s had connected people’s lives”.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “Such precocious numbers spot mounting unit connected lodging and nationalist services. We request contiguous action.”

To curb tiny vessel crossings, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper yesterday signed a woody with Iraq for its assistance successful closing down people-smuggling routes.

Britain is giving the state astir £1million, including £300,000 to bid police to bust smuggling gangs, £200,000 to acceptable up a borderline task unit successful its Kurdistan region, and £300,000 to tackle human trafficking and cause smuggling.