LONDON (AP) — Britain's leader, Keir Starmer, promised on Monday to reduce the number of immigrants and make it more difficult for people to live permanently in the UK.

Starmer, whose Labour Party won easily last July, is facing pressure from voters who are worried about high immigration. Many people think this has made public services worse and caused ethnic problems in some areas.

Starmer said he would stop "Britain's try at open borders" shortly after the Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage, won many local elections. The Labour and Conservative parties, which have been the main parties in British politics for a long time, lost a lot of support in these local elections.

Starmer said in a speech that they will make the rules for immigration stricter in all areas, such as for work, families, and study. This is so they can have more control. He also said they will create a system that is controlled, chooses carefully who can come in, and is fair.

Immigration has been a big issue in Britain for many years, especially since 2004 when the European Union got bigger and included countries in Eastern Europe. Most EU countries did not let many people come from these new countries for a few years, but the UK let them come and work right away.

By 2010, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, promised to lower the number of people moving to the UK each year to under 100,000. But four Conservative governments did not manage to achieve this. In 2016, anger about the government not being able to control people coming from EU countries was a main reason why Britain voted to leave the EU.

But Brexit didn't make fewer people come into the country with visas for work, study, and family. The number of people arriving in the UK minus those who left, called net migration, was more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023. This was almost four times higher than before Brexit. This big increase happened partly because many people were leaving the war in Ukraine and the situation in Hong Kong. Net immigration went down to 728,000 in the year to June 2024.

In recent years, many people have worried that the government cannot control who enters Britain. This worry grew after thousands of migrants arrived in the U.K. in small, unsafe boats used by people who help others cross illegally. Last year, about 37,000 people crossed the sea to England in these small boats.

Starmer has promised to reduce that number by stopping the criminal groups who organize these trips.

Now, he has promised to reduce the number of people coming to the country legally. He didn't say exactly how many. He plans to do this by giving fewer visas for jobs that don't need special skills, asking for higher salaries for work visas, and making sure people who come here can speak English better.

Starmer started using the same words as the campaign that wanted Britain to leave the EU, which he was against before. He said his government would 'take back control' of Britain's borders.

He said that past Conservative governments had allowed too many people into the country without enough checks. He called this 'a one-nation experiment'. He added that the country had voted for more control, and that this would stop now.

Plans from the government, published on Monday, promise to greatly reduce the number of visas for jobs that do not require high skills, and stop hiring people from other countries to work in care homes. This is important work, but it often does not pay well. The government stated it would make these jobs better so that people in Britain would want to do them, but they did not explain how.

Martin Green, head of Care England, said getting workers from other countries was very important for their industry.

He said that taking it away now, without warning, money, or another choice, is not just a bad plan, but also cruel.

Starmer said that some parts of the British economy relied too much on cheap workers from other countries. He added that the government would put more money into training programs and apprenticeships for British workers.

With the new rules, most immigrants must live in the UK for 10 years instead of five to become citizens. However, people who help the country and become part of the community will not have to wait as long.

Starmer said that immigration has always been part of Britain's history. However, he added that without clear rules, people might feel like strangers instead of a country working together.

Some groups that help refugees and some Labour politicians were concerned about what Starmer said. For example, he claimed that a lot of immigration had caused 'huge damage' to British society. A Labour politician named Sarah Owen wrote online that if they try to copy the ideas of the right, it could lead the country in a very bad way.

Chris Philp, the Conservative spokesman on immigration, said that Labour’s plans are not strong enough.

He said, "People are right to want fewer immigrants coming here." He also asked Parliament to decide on a yearly maximum number of immigrants.