Inside Starmer's immigration policy and his 'Bangladeshi immigrant' remark

Keir Starmer, leader of Britain's Labour party, reacts as he speaks at a reception to celebrate his win in the election, at Tate Modern, in London, Britain on 5 July. Photo: REUTERS

Both Labour and Conservatives vowed to cut net migration before the UK elections. 

The Labour Party, which won a landslide victory on 5 July, is usually known for maintaining a fine line in politics between turning on taps to allow immigrants to enter the United Kingdom or pushing them back. On the campaign trail, the party made promises this year that some said echoed the Conservatives' sentiment. 

Among its promised policies on immigration is reducing the demand for overseas workers which would be achieved by training British workers, according to Yvette Cooper who served as Labour's shadow home secretary. 

She said that the Labour Party wants to cut reliance on foreign workers in construction, IT, social care, health and engineering, etc and they plan to ban employers who break rules by hiring workers from foreign countries.

Meanwhile,  before the elections, the Conservatives said that they would set a strict limit on visas each year through the parliament. 

Labour leader Cooper (on her party not setting a target in reducing net migration or reducing the need for skilled workers from abroad) said that it was a "sensible" decision for the Tories had 'discredited the whole system' by missing the previous targets. 

The Tories replied to her on BBC, "No one believes Keir Starmer is serious about tackling immigration." 

And the Liberal Democrats – hailed for their dramatic rise with 71 seats – said they would waive the immigration skill fee for NHS workers and allow care workers to bring their partners and children to the UK again.

Against this backdrop, what caused a viral uproar recently is Starmer's comment singling out Bangladeshi immigrants when he spoke about his intent to curb illegal migration and asylum seekers during an event hosted by The Sun (a right-leaning British tabloid newspaper). 

In "How Bangladeshis being 'scapegoated' ahead of UK election," TBS wrote about reactions to the comment, particularly from the Bangladeshi-origin MPs in the UK parliament and the history of racism targetting Bangladeshis in the country.    

After Starmer secured a landslide victory for the Labour Party, we spoke to experts to gauge what his comment could mean for Bangladesh and UK's foreign policy  

What could Starmer's 'Bangladeshi immigrant' remark mean for its govt policy?

Perhaps much to his discredit with the "clumsy" remark [Starmer himself said "clumsy would be a good word, I didn't mean to offend anyone"] on Bangladeshi immigrants, such suspicion is created on his intent with the immigration policies. 

When asked by a journalist about the immigrants coming to the UK on small boats, which has been a big deal in UK politics for some time, Starmer said, "At the moment people coming from countries like Bangladesh are not being removed, because they're not being processed." 

He singled out Bangladesh. 

And to his credit or discredit, he didn't take long to disavow his uninformed comment because Bangladesh is not one of the top countries entering the UK on boats. 

Instead, the data from the UK government's Home Office shows that among 126,609 crossings, only 13 people from Bangladesh applied for asylum after crossing the Channel in small boats between 2018 and 2024.

"The point here is the Conservative's and the Labour's immigration policy won't significantly differ. However, they are different in terms of their approaches to implementation. We have to see how the Labour government will be implementing their immigration policy."

Shahab Enam Khan

Over half a million British-Bangladeshis live in the UK, who run over 10,000 restaurants which are instrumental to Britain's $5.7 billion curry industry. They also serve in the NHS and armed forces defying the reported racist attacks on them over the years. 

And though around 11,000 Bangladeshis sought asylum after entering on visas last year, both the Bangladesh and UK governments reached an agreement on removing them. 

But even this figure is lower than India, Pakistan, Iran etc.  

However, given the Starmer comment, although he clarified his position later, does it indicate anything significant about the Labour government's approach to Bangladeshi migration in particular?  

M Touhid Hossain, former foreign secretary, doesn't think so. 

"It has been obvious for many days that Starmer is going to be the Prime Minister. [Despite his comment on Bangladeshis] Most Bangladeshi-British voted for Labour and all four Bangladeshi-British MPs are from the Labour Party. Some people were disenfranchised, though, who quit the Labour Party or voted for independents," Touhid Hossain said. 

He further explained that it could be that he may not like Bangladeshis personally, or that he said this from a stereotype that Bangladesh is a poor country and that illegal immigrants are going from here – which is not entirely incorrect.

 He also added that Bangladeshis may not be crossing the English Channel but a good number of those who cross the Mediterranean are Bangladeshis. These are often publicized which could instigate him in saying so. 

"I don't think he is anti-Bangladeshi or that he will take any detrimental steps against Bangladeshis. There is nothing to give too much importance to Bangladesh, or go against it either," Hossain added. 

Shahab Enam Khan, a professor of international relations thinks that the new Prime Minister didn't mean those words. "I don't think it was a deliberate comment from the Prime Minister. And there is no reason to think that certain comments will significantly impact the bilateral relationship," he said. 

The professor further explained that the British economy is deeply linked with the Bangladeshi diaspora and immigrants. And lots of the immigrants are basically legal immigrants. 

On the other hand, Bangladesh and UK relations are multifold – it is not only political but economy and culture are deeply linked. 

"I don't think such comments should be singled out and taken as a key determinant to the Bangladesh-UK relationship. Because the UK has multiple issues to deal with ranging from climate to safe migration to development. 

Also in future, Bangladesh-UK relations in terms of defence and security will be very important for the UK's interest in the Indo-Pacific," Shahab Enam added. 

Among the other top issues that centred around the Labour's immigration policy was scrapping the Rwanda scheme which relocates asylum seekers who came in small boats to Rwanda through a process. 

Labour called the Conservative scheme a "desperate gimmick." 

In place of this, the Labour promises to establish a Border Security Command with "hundreds of new investigators, intelligence officers and cross-border police officers." 

Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the charity Migrants'​ Rights Network, in conversation with Euro News, welcomed Labour's proposals to scrap the Rwanda policy. But she also said that the party must be careful not to pander to the right wing's hard line on migration in a bid to appease voters.

"We are obviously supportive of the Rwanda plan being scrapped in its totality, but we are concerned that an alternative would be brought into place," Qureshi told Euronews.

"So whereas Rwanda is still a concern and has been identified as an unsafe country for many individuals, we are concerned that another country will be considered by Labour. And we know this because bilateral agreements are already taking place (..) between Bangladesh and the UK, and with India," she added. 

So how different is the Labour immigration policy from the Conservatives in general? 

"The point here is the Conservatives and the Labour's immigration policy won't significantly differ. However, they are different in terms of their approaches to implementation.  We have to see how the Labour government will be implementing their immigration policy," Shahab Enam Khan said. 

"The United Kingdom has been dealing with the immigration issue for a long time. The post-Brexit labour market and the current economic situation specify that there will be a need to rethink their immigration policy. Which is the economic reality of the UK. In that case, how the Labour government deals with their labour market is something important for their economic reality," he added.