Tony Blair fires immigration warning at Keir Starmer - 'people want control'

Sir Tony Blair has warned Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that “people want controls” on immigration. The former PM declared that “if you don’t have rules you get prejudices”.

He believes a balance needed to be struck between people appreciating the “enormous benefits” of immigration and the desire for restrictions on people coming to the UK.

Sir Tony said: “I think it is very clear that on immigration I think there is a centre ground that can hold which is where people understand there are enormous benefits to immigration, and by the way a lot of what we are talking about, these great AI innovations, look at the people leading them, many of them are immigrants into this country.

“But at the same time I think people want controls. So this is the balance that you need to strike because as I say, if you don’t have rules you get prejudices.”

He made the comments after being asked about a recent warning he made about the threat posed by Reform UK to the Labour Party.

When he was quizzed over whether he was convinced by Labour’s immigration plan, Sir Tony said: “I think what they are doing on border control and so on, if they can make it effective, will make a huge difference.”

Sir Keir described the Migration and Economic Development Partnership (MEDP) with Rwanda as being “dead and buried before it started”.

The Tories had pledged a “regular rhythm of flights every month” to Rwanda in their election offering, but the previous government had refused to say how much more money – on top of £290 million already committed – the UK had agreed to pay Rwanda as part of the deal.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “We need to clear the Conservatives’ asylum backlog, but the first priority has to be to get the stronger border security in place, and that is why our first step is setting up the new Border Security Command.”