Starmer admits Labour previously shied away from immigration concerns

Labour has shied away from addressing concerns over immigration in the past, Sir Keir Starmer has admitted.

Writing in the Telegraph, the Prime Minister said it is now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration”.

It comes as Sir Keir prepares to attend the Global Progress Action Summit in London, where he will warn that relying on migration to plug workforce gaps “is not compassionate left-wing politics”.

He will also use his speech to tout the idea of “difference under the same flag”.

It is possible to be concerned about immigration whilst rejecting Reform UK’s “toxic” approach, Sir Keir has argued, according to The Telegraph.

He wrote in the newspaper: “There is no doubt that for years left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration.

“It has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally.

“We must be absolutely clear that tackling every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration is essential.”

Sir Keir’s appearance at the summit on Friday follows a summer marked by protests near hotels housing asylum seekers and a campaign known as “Operation Raise the Colours”, with flags attached to lamp posts and signs throughout the UK.

St George’s crosses appeared on landmarks, including a fabric version on the Westbury White Horse in Wiltshire and one painted on to Nottingham’s two-metre tall Goosey the Goose, in place on the Mansfield Road roundabout to promote the city’s Goose Fair.

Both incidents triggered police investigations.

The Prime Minister is also expected to announce the rollout of mandatory digital ID cards in a bid to crack down on those working illegally.

Australia’s Labour prime minister Anthony Albanese and Canadian Liberal prime minister Mark Carney will join Sir Keir at the conference.

Sir Keir is expected to argue “the simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders”.

“For too many years, it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally,” he will tell attendees.

He will add: “It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages. But the simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders.”

It is understood the Prime Minister will also set out a choice between “a politics of predatory grievance, preying on the problems of working people” and “patriotic renewal, rooted in communities, building a better country, brick by brick, from the bottom up, including everyone in the national story”.

Turning to political discourse online, Sir Keir will describe “an industrialised infrastructure of grievance, an entire world, not just a world view, created through our devices”.

He will add: “That is miserable, joyless, demonstrably untrue, and yet, in another way, totally cohesive.

“That preys on real problems in the real world, identifies clear enemies – that’s us.

“And, at its heart, its most poisonous belief, on full display at the protests here in London just a week or two ago, (is) that there is a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle, for the nation – or all our nations.”

Sir Keir will warn of “a language that is naked in its attempt to intimidate”.

Around 110,000 to 150,000 protesters gathered in London’s Whitehall and the surrounding streets on September 13, according to Metropolitan Police estimates, for a rally called “Unite the Kingdom”.

Referring to the demonstration, far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, told his followers in a video posted to X that “the spark has started, the revolution is on”.

The Centre for American Progress Action Fund, think tank Labour Together, and the Institute for Public Policy Research are hosting the summit.

The Prime Minister will say that campaigners who think of themselves as progressive must look themselves “in the mirror” and identify areas where they have allowed themselves “to shy away from people’s concerns”.