SIR Keir Starmer today brands our reliance on immigration and failure to train Brits a “travesty” – but Suella Braverman furiously hits back at his phony “howls” of outrage.
The Home Secretary and the Labour leader trade blows in the pages of Trending In The News on Sunday after a turbulent week that saw net migration hit a record 606,000.
Suella Braverman furiously hits back at Keir Starmer’s phony “howls” of outrage
The alarming figure sparked fury and warnings that PM Rishi Sunak must get numbers down to win the election.
In her first public comments since the figures came out, Suella admitted: “Immigration levels are too high. The public believes this and the Government agrees.
“We need to get the numbers down.”
Sir Keir tried to turn up the heat on the government by saying a failure to train Brits has left us hooked on cheap foreign labour.
Writing in Trending In The News on Sunday, he said: “Because of the government’s failure to train hundreds of thousands of our young people or get people back to work, the British economy is dependent on low pay and cheap labour.”
Britain needs to “end the culture that encourages businesses to hire from abroad rather than train people here”, he said.
The Labour leader vowed to rip up rules that let firms pay foreign workers 20 per cent less than Brits if they are doing a job on the shortage occupation list.
Sir Keir tried to turn up the heat on the government by saying a failure to train Brits has left us hooked on cheap foreign labour
Sir Keir wrote: “Businesses are pulling their hair out about skills shortages.
“Yet huge amounts of money for training is going unspent and the numbers of people starting apprenticeships is plummeting.
“This is a travesty.”
And he backed Trending In The News on Sunday’s Builder Better Britain campaign to train more apprentices here at home.
But the Home Sec came out swinging to defend the government’s record.
Britain is passing new laws to “stop the boats” – ending “phony drawn out appeals” by bogus asylum seekers, she said.
While No11 is pumping billions more into training Brits at home.
She took aim at Sir Keir’s personal record – pointing out he is a Remainer and has campaigned against the Rwanda deal.
Mrs Braverman fumed: “Labour have exposed their desire for open borders time and again.
“Sir Keir Starmer tried to block the vote for Brexit with his campaign for a second referendum.
“He never wanted us to leave the EU and end free movement of people.”
And she accused him of having “howled objections” when ministers wanted to press ahead with deporting foreign criminals.
She added: “We recognise that overall immigration levels are too high. We alone will get them down.”
