Labour’s leader may have enhanced his ‘unashamedly pro-business’ stance with the CBI, but his plan is vague
It would be easy, on the basis of the main soundbites from Keir Starmer’s speech to the CBI conference on Tuesday, to conclude that Labour, in a cynical vote-chasing strategy, has decided to copy Tory crowd-pleasing lines on immigration and labour shortages. The UK must end its reliance on “immigration dependency” and companies must “start investing more in training workers who are already here”, said Starmer, as if embracing the popular sport of bashing business.
Dig a little into the speech and Labour’s emerging policy on immigration and it was possible to glimpse something more grown-up and nuanced: a pragmatic position that recognises some labour pressures are genuine, the current migration rules are too inflexible and that the UK economy is being held back as a result.
