Yvette Cooper has revealed that Keir Starmer insisted on personally announcing Labour's immigration reforms despite not being involved in drawing up the policies, in an astonishing attack on her former boss. The former Home Secretary said the ex-Prime Minister's leadership style "doesn't necessarily work in politics".
Cooper reveals internal rift over immigration
Speaking on the Political Currency podcast with George Osborne, Ms Cooper said: "When we did the immigration white paper ... we did a lot of the work on it in the Home Office, and we had a whole set of plans to bring legal migration back under control, a whole set of reforms around illegal migration and so on. But then Number 10 wanted Keir to announce it on his own and to front that up, and so I didn't see what was going to be said or what the announcement was."
She added: "And that was the way the No 10 operated. It was like, well, you can sit in the front row of the launch, but actually the Prime Minister is going to launch it. But actually, the Prime Minister's not really been involved in the development of the policies."
Labour's immigration reforms
Sir Keir unveiled plans to ramp up deportations by increasing the number of offenders eligible for removals, overhaul how Article 8 of the ECHR is used in immigration cases, scrap the social care visa route, require foreign workers to take graduate level jobs and boost English language skills.
The Home Office predicted the changes will lead to 100,000 fewer people coming to the UK, meaning net migration could settle at around 240,000-250,000 by the end of this Parliament in 2029. Current Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has since gone further, declaring migrants will have to wait at least 10 years before they can apply for settlement rights, and migrants could be barred from claiming benefits unless they become British citizens.
Arrivals applying for indefinite leave to remain after 10 years must have no criminal record, speak English to A-level standards and have no debt, under Labour's new proposals. Ms Mahmood has also told asylum caseworkers that "no weight" should be given to Article 8 claims when the family unit has been established whilst they did not have the legal right to be in the UK.
Cooper compares Starmer to Burnham
Ms Cooper, now Health Secretary in Andy Burnham's government, said "I don't think we've done Government very well in the last couple of years." She cited achievements including 3,000 more neighbourhood police on the beat in the first year and NHS waiting times coming down, but said "the focus shifted quite a lot. So, we had 'missions' in the first six months and then they kind of disappeared."
In contrast, she said the Prime Minister's drive to reform social care has largely "come from Andy because it's something he's been passionate about". She noted that Mr Burnham wanted her to be part of the event launching it, saying "there's a difference in style of operating".
