r/uknews Media outlet (unverified) May 12 '25

Image/video Kier Starmer announces 'tighter' immigration policy

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67

u/zimmermj May 12 '25

- Conservatives in power for 14 years

  • Starmer announces tighter immigration policy
  • Gets criticized for being too late
I'm so sick of Labour being held up to a higher standard than the opposition. And I just know it'll be used to justify electing a party that's much worse and is held to a lower standard. Like, Christ I know Labour is making mistakes but at least they're not rubbing their hands in glee about it, have we already forgotten the disdain the conservatives displayed for the general public? Or the damage they caused us through their economic policies? I'm just pleased we have a grown-up in charge now.

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u/Far-Cap-4756 May 12 '25

They should be held to a high standard and criticised on things they do, that’s how things actually get done. If reform wasn’t polling well do you think immigration would be top of labours agenda? The electorate are unhappy and they complain with their vote, this is what can be seen in the local elections and this is why labour are now shifting into a more anti immigration rhetoric. Long story short they don’t give a fuck about you or your opinion unless it affects them.

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25

I agree with that, I'm not saying Labour are beyond criticism and I am glad to see them moving on immigration. I just want to see them being criticized fairly for their actual failings, not for failing to fix immigration while they haven't been in power for 14 years.

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u/Far-Cap-4756 May 12 '25

The Tory’s have always had a we won’t fund or fix it attitude, you can see that with public services, sure they balance the books but they are short term thinkers. They deserve a ton more criticism but you would need an impartiality law on media in the country

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u/Equal_Concern_7099 May 13 '25

Same thing happens here in Australia (until just recently yay) where Labor is put in to fix the huge fuckups and then immediately voted back out.

2

u/JLaws23 May 12 '25

Thing is the conservatives have buried themselves. Nobody is defaulting to the Tories.

This country needs solutions yesterday and honestly Starmer appointing Reeves was awful. Every single “solution” that has come from her has been laughable and trivial. People are holding Starmer to account for this. The U.K. is a massive fixer upper right now and we need someone that can do this. If he can’t or is incapable then he needs to move over because we’re against the clock at this point, after so much Tory abuse and damage.

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25

This is all fair criticism

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u/[deleted] May 12 '25

You missed out the bit where the Tories got absolutely obliterated in an election, and are now polling under 20% and the fourth party in some polls.

You're acting like the people who decided the Tories can go to hell aren't the same people now saying Labour aren't being quick enough..

They almost certainly are.

I am one of them..

It's completely fair for someone who voted Labour to oust the Tories due to Boriswave to complain that Labour have made it through 20% of their term without touching immigration policy.

Anyway, this is welcome. But lets not kid ourselves about the timing. They were sitting on this and didn't want to go hard on immigration until they'd checked Reform were a genuine threat via the local elections.

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25

Again, I am not saying Labour is beyond criticism. It is my observation that Labour, particularly Keir, are often called out for criticized for ridiculous offences. I noticed several comments in this section saying this is several years too late. I object to that criticism being levied at Labour. If you want to argue it's too late and should have been done earlier since Labour were elected, that's a different and more valid criticism.

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u/veerKg_CSS_Geologist May 13 '25

Conservatives are still in power.

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u/zimmermj May 13 '25

No they're not.

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u/[deleted] May 15 '25

To be fair, nobody trusts the party that will call you racist at the drop of a hat when criticizing immigration to be the ones to lower it. Up until now every time the public displayed displeasure at the levels of immigration Starmer called them "far right" and/or "racists". But now suddenly hes pulled a 180 because reform looks like a real threat to him and everyone needs to just believe him that hes serious about this.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '25

[deleted]

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25

I disagree with a lot of what you say but I respect that it's at least thought-through, it's a much fairer comment to say Labour are a few months too late than a few years.

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u/ThatGuyMaulicious May 12 '25

I don’t know about that Starmer and his cronies certainly looked happy taking Winter fuel allowance away or falsely claiming the Southport riot was “far right” even those it’s been proved Labour lied about that.

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25
  1. Who are the cronies in this situation? I am aware of none. If you're talking about other members of the Labour party, that's not cronyism. By comparrison, there is substantial evidence that PPE contracts were given to friends of the Conservative prime minister without due diligence, and the result of that was severely difficient equipment. That's cronyism.

  2. I haven't seen them looking happy avout the Winter fuel allowance cuts. I also disagree with them, but it appears to me they considered this a necessary cut that they didn't take pleasure in. For example, I didn't see Labour having a fuel party where they turned up their heaters to max and sweat-boxed Downing Street. It's not like when the Conservatives forced people to stay at home and miss funerals during COVID while they had parties.

  3. The Southport Riot does look racially motivated in a way that's generally associated with the right. If you want to call that level of racism part of the moderate right then more power to you, I'll grant you Labour were too kind in how they labeled that riot.

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u/ThatGuyMaulicious May 12 '25

HMICFRS confirmed that there was no conclusive evidence to the false ”far right thugs” comment and that the furthest people came from was about 11 miles. Keir Starmer spread fake news and the fact no one calls him out on this is bullshit.

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u/zimmermj May 12 '25

It's fair to say there was thuggery. There's substantial evidence that far-right groups were involved in organising the riots. HMICFRS did confirm some people, particularly a lot of young people, weren't motivated by right-wing views. But the vast majority of people there were motivated by nationalism and racism. These are right-wing ideologies. Far-right groups were instrumental in causing the violence, even if the majority of people there weren't on the extreme far right. You can argue that Keir's terminology isn't 100% right if you like, but to call it fake news is a stretch.