Keir Starmer has snapped back at Nigel Farage and Reform this week, after the insurgent right-wing party announced a controversial new policy to remove Indefinite Leave to Remain for immigrants living in the UK – an announcement which the PM says ‘is racist’.
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Keir Starmer slams Reform for ‘racist’ policy
It’s strong language from Sir Keir, who has previously been accused of pandering to Farage and his colleagues. However, Starmer has drawn a firm line in the sand on Sunday, telling Laura Kuenssberg that such a policy would ‘rip the country apart’.
Indefinite Leave to Remain can be achieved once someone from overseas has completed all the relevant paperwork after living in the UK for more than five years. However, Reform want to remove this right, and have instead proposed a five-year cycle of reapplication and review.
What is Indefinite Leave to Remain?
Critics argue that people who have lived here for decades and built prosperous lives for themselves would be eligible for deportation under such a scheme. Although Reform MPs state that there will be more nuance to their approach, it has angered many of their opponents.
This rare show of aggression from the Prime Minister reveals his deep disdain for the suggestion. He did, however, make one important distinction, saying that he felt those voting for Reform were not racist, but that they might be inclined to back the policy ‘due to their frustrations’.
“I do think that it is a racist policy. I do think it is immoral. It needs to be called out for what it is. I think there are plenty of people who either vote Reform or are thinking of voting Reform who are frustrated. They had 14 years of failure under the Conservatives, they want us to change things.”
“It is one thing to say we’re going to remove illegal migrants, people who have no right to be here. I’m up for that. It is a completely different thing to say we are going to reach in to people who are lawfully here and remove them. They are our neighbours. It will rip the UK apart” | Keir Starmer