Sir Keir Starmer set out his plan at Farnborough International Airshow (Image: Getty)

       Britain’s new Prime Minister said his planned shakeup of training in England will reduce the need for firms to hire from abroad.

       The new Labour government is facing pressure to reduce legal migration from the record highs seen in the wake of Brexit - with numbers soaring following the end of the EU transition period. According to government estimates, just over a million people moved to England and Wales from overseas last year, while 462,000 emigrated abroad - a difference of 622,000 people.

       The highest net migration figures - the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants - were in major cities and conurbations. Birmingham gained the highest number of new residents from international migration, with 24,500 more people immigrating than emigrating, followed by Manchester (18,078), Coventry (15,538), Newham (14,292), Leicester (13,588), and Sheffield (13,141).

       Birmingham saw the highest amount of net immigration (Image: Getty)

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       Net migration was far lower in rural areas. And in one part of the country, South Holland in Lincolnshire, emigration was higher than immigration, with 136 more people moving abroad than arriving.

       Immigration also had a far greater impact on the population makeup of urban towns and cities than in rural areas. That was most noticeable in Middlesbrough where about 1,400 people emigrated and 8,200 international migrants arrived, a difference of just under 6,800 people.

       With an estimated population of about 152,000, it means about one in 23 people now living in Middlesbrough (or 4.4% of the population) are international migrants who arrived last year. The picture was similar in Coventry where 4.3% of the population arrived from overseas in 2023, and in Newham (3.9%).

       Immigration was most noticeable in Middlesbrough (Image: Getty)

       Now, Sir Keir Starmer has set out a plan to “fire up” the training of more British workers as he insisted he would not be content to pull the “easy lever” of overseas labour. The Prime Minister said young people in the UK have been “let down” by a lack of opportunity and a “fragmented and broken” skills system.

       A new body, Skills England, will bring together central and local government, businesses, trade unions and training providers to identify areas for improvement, he said. You can see the impact international migration has had where you live with our interactive map, below.

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       In a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow in Hampshire, the Prime Minister said: “All too often young people in our country have been let down, not given access to the right opportunities or training in their community. And that’s created an over-reliance in our economy on higher and higher levels of migration.”

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       He added that he would not criticise businesses who hire from overseas and would not “diminish the contribution that migration makes to our economy, to our public services and, of course, to our communities.”

       “Migration is part of our national story. It always has been, always will be,” the Prime Minister said. But he added that it “cannot be right” that some people are unable to work because the UK lacks a coherent skills system.

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