LONDON (AP) — Keir Starmer, the leader of Britain, said on Monday that he wants fewer people to come and live in the UK. He also wants to make it harder for them to stay. This problem has been difficult for many governments. It has also helped a new political party that is against people from other countries. This party could be a problem for the government.

Many people are unhappy because a lot of immigrants have come to the country. They think this makes public services like hospitals and schools very busy and causes problems between different groups of people in some areas.

Starmer said he would stop the UK having completely open borders. This was after another party, led by Nigel Farage, did very well in recent local elections. The two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives, did not do well in these elections.

Starmer said they will make it harder for people to come to the UK for work, family, or study. He said they want a system that they can control, that is careful about who comes, and that is fair.

Immigration has been a big topic in Britain for many years, especially after 2004. In that year, more countries from Eastern Europe joined the European Union. Most EU countries did not allow people from these new countries to move there for some years, but the UK allowed them to work there right away.

In 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted fewer people to come and live in the UK each year. He wanted the number to be less than 100,000. But his party's governments did not achieve this goal. Many people were angry because the government could not control the number of people coming from EU countries. This was a main reason why Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016.

But Brexit did not make fewer people come to the country with visas for work, study, and family. The number of people coming to the UK minus those who left was more than 900,000 in the year to June 2023, based on official numbers. This was almost four times more than before Brexit. A big reason for this rise was many people leaving Ukraine because of the war and leaving Hong Kong because of problems there. The number of people coming to the UK went down to 728,000 in the year to June 2024.

Many people are worried that the government is not controlling who enters Britain. This is because thousands of people have come in small, unsafe boats.

Starmer said he will make that number smaller by stopping the bad groups who help people travel illegally.

Now he has said he will let fewer people move to the country legally. He wants to do this by giving fewer work permits for jobs that don't need many skills. He also wants people to earn more money for work permits and to speak English better.

Starmer used the same words as the people who wanted Britain to leave the EU. He was against this idea before. He said his government would 'take back control' of Britain's borders.

He said that in the past, the Conservative governments let many people come into the country easily. He said this happened even though people in the country voted to decide who comes in. He also said that this will not happen anymore.

On Monday, the government announced new plans. They plan to reduce the number of visas for jobs that don't require many skills. They also want to stop hiring people from other countries to work in care homes. These jobs are important but usually don't pay well. The government said they will make these jobs better so that people in Britain will want to do them. However, they did not explain how they will do this.

Martin Green, the head of Care England, said that hiring people from other countries is very important for their work.

He said it is not fair to take it away now without telling people, giving money, or offering another choice. He said it is a bad idea and also mean.

Starmer said the British economy used cheap foreign workers too much. He said the government would spend more money on training young British people and helping British workers learn new skills.

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

Starmer said that people moving to Britain has always been part of its history. But he also said that without clear rules, people might feel like strangers and not work together as a country.

Some groups who help refugees and some Labour politicians were not happy with what Starmer said. He said that many people coming to the UK had caused big problems for British society. A Labour politician, Sarah Owen, wrote online that trying to be like the right-wing could make the UK go in a very bad direction.

Chris Philp, a Conservative politician, said Labour's plans for immigration are not enough.

He said that people want fewer immigrants. He also said that the government should decide how many people can come to the country each year.