LONDON (AP) — Britain’s leader, Keir Starmer, said on Monday that he wants to reduce the number of immigrants and make it more difficult for people to live in the UK permanently. He spoke about this issue, which has been a problem for many governments and has helped a new party that is against immigration become more powerful. This party might be a danger to the main political groups in the country.

Starmer, whose Labour Party won a big election last July, is under pressure because many voters are unhappy about high immigration. They think this has caused problems for public services and increased tensions in some areas.

Starmer said he would stop "Britain's unsuccessful attempt at open borders." This happened soon after Reform UK, a far-right party led by Nigel Farage, won many local elections. The Labour Party and the Conservative Party, the main parties in British politics for a long time, both lost a lot of support in these elections for local councils and mayors.

Starmer said that they will make every part of the immigration system, like rules for work, families, and studying, stronger so they have more control. He added that they will build a system that is controlled, chooses carefully who can come, and is fair.

Immigration has been a significant topic in Britain for many years, particularly since 2004 when more countries joined the European Union. Most EU countries limited people moving from these new countries for a few years, but the UK quickly allowed them to work.

In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to lower the number of people moving to the UK to under 100,000 a year. However, four Conservative governments did not manage to do this. In 2016, many people were unhappy because the government could not control the number of people arriving from EU countries. This was a major reason why Britain voted to leave the EU.

But Brexit did not lower the number of people coming into the country on visas for work, study, and to join family. The number of people coming in minus those leaving the UK reached over 900,000 by June 2023, according to official numbers. This was almost four times more than before Brexit. The big increase was partly because hundreds of thousands of people left Ukraine because of war and Hong Kong because of China's control. By June 2024, the number of people coming in minus those leaving went down to 728,000.

In recent years, many people have become worried that the government cannot control who enters Britain. This is because they have seen thousands of migrants come into the UK in small, weak boats used by smugglers. Last year, about 37,000 people crossed the sea between France and England in these small boats.

Starmer has promised to reduce this number by stopping the criminal groups who arrange these trips.

Now he has also promised to greatly reduce the number of people who can legally move to the country to work. He plans to do this by giving fewer visas for jobs that don't require high skills, making people earn more money to get a work visa, and asking immigrants to have better English skills.

Starmer used words from the campaign that wanted Britain to leave the EU, even though he was against it before. He said his government would take back control of Britain's borders.

He said that past Conservative governments had allowed many people to enter the country freely, even though the public wanted more control over who came in. He promised that this would stop.

On Monday, the government shared plans to cut down on visas for jobs that don't need much training and stop hiring people from other countries to work in care homes. These jobs are important but often don't pay well. The government said they would make these jobs better so that people in Britain would want to do them, but they didn't explain how.

Martin Green, who leads Care England, said that hiring people from other countries is very important for their industry.

"Taking it away now, without warning, money, or another choice, is not just a bad idea – it's cruel," he said.

Starmer said some parts of the British economy used cheap foreign workers too much. He said the government would spend more money on training and apprenticeships for British workers.

Under the new rules, most immigrants will need to live in the U.K. for 10 years, instead of five, to become citizens. However, those who contribute and become part of the community will not have to wait as long.

Starmer said that people moving to Britain is part of its history, but if there are no clear rules, "we could become like an island of strangers, not a country that moves forward together."

Groups that help refugees and some Labour politicians were not happy with what Starmer said. They were especially unhappy with his claim that a lot of people coming to the UK had caused "great harm" to British society. Labour politician Sarah Owen wrote online that if they follow the ideas of the right wing, it could lead the country "in a very bad direction."

Chris Philp, who speaks for the Conservative party on immigration, said Labour's ideas are not good enough.

He said that people are right to want less immigration. He also asked Parliament to set a limit on how many immigrants can come each year.