The Prime Minister insisted migrants were needed to fill ‘gaps in the economy’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham has refused to say whether he thinks migration levels are too high. And he suggested migrant workers were needed to fill “gaps in the economy”, despite the UK having 1.7 million people unemployed. There are also more than 600,000 young people not in employment, education or training who are classed as “economically inactive”, meaning they don’t count as unemployed because they are not even looking for work.
Mr Burnham was questioned about immigration numbers by ITV Tonight for an interview which will air on Tuesday. He said legal migration has “come right down” and “I think when you have planned migration, it’s difficult to say is it too high or too low, because it’s got to be, if you like, following gaps in the economy. Because if you just put a number on it, then we may have a shortage in a certain area.”
The Prime Minister said immigration – both legal and illegal – was “in a much better place than it was”.
“Because boat crossings are down and net migration overall is down and down quite significantly.
“So there’s a much better control of it.”
The Prime Minister, who has called for a discussion about the possibility of a return to free movement with the European Union, added: “What I have argued is that migration and illegal immigration changed significantly with Brexit. And I think we’ve got to be honest about that.”
Net migration into the UK was 171,000 in 2025.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will today set out changes to immigration, but she is expected to say that planned reforms have been watered down. Her proposed changes were criticised by many Labour MPs as well as Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, and it appears Mr Burnham has also privately urged her to make changes.
She wanted to make it harder for immigrants to receive indefinite leave to remain, also known as settled status, so that many had to wait ten years or longer, up from five years today. People with indefinite leave to remain can claim benefits and are eligible to use public services in a similar way to British citizens.
Possible changes could include excluding care workers from the new, tougher rules.
But Ministers have admitted the Government doesn’t know what people given care worker visas are actually doing.
Home Office Minister Jo White warned many of the 600,000 migrants who were given permission to work in the care sector may be doing something else. She said the visa handout was “a scandal”.
Taking part in a panel during the Labour conference, Ms White said that employers were encouraged to become “sponsors”, so they could obtain visas for foreign staff, after the UK left the EU in 2020.
She said: “The biggest concern we’ve had is the number of sponsors that were issued to the social care sector.”
The Conservative government at the time expected 40,000 foreign care workers to come but “in fact over 600,000 arrived,” she said.
“And there is no real sense that they are actually working in the social care sector.”
She said “Where those workers have gone is a cause of concern. Some are continuing to work for those employers. Some have gone off [doing] we know not what.”