Sir Keir Starmer has accused the last government of a “one nation experiment in open borders”. In a press conference in Downing Street, the prime minister accused the Conservatives of a “different order of failure” that happened “by design not accident”. Starmer said: “Time and again the Conservative Party promised they would get the numbers down. Time and again they failed, and now the chorus of excuses has begun.” Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The Independent Office of National Statistics has conducted vital work on the state of immigration
00:08and found the previous government were running an open borders experiment.
00:14As the ONS sets out, nearly one million people came to Britain in the year ending June 2023.
00:24That is four times the migration levels compared with 2019.
00:29The failure on this scale isn't just bad luck.
00:35It isn't a global trend or taking your eye off the ball.
00:38No, this is a different order of failure.
00:43This happened by design, not accident.
00:48Policies were reformed deliberately to liberalise immigration.
00:53It was used for that purpose.
00:56To turn Britain into a one-nation experiment in open borders.
01:02Global Britain, remember that slogan?
01:06That is what they meant.
01:08A policy with no support, of which they then pretended wasn't happening.
01:14And now they want to wave it away with a simple, we got it wrong.
01:21Well that's unforgivable.
01:24And mark my words, this government will turn the page.
01:29That begins in the economy, because you cannot separate this failure from their refusal to
01:37do the hard yards on skills, on welfare reform, on giving our young people opportunities.
01:45Rather the easy answers of looking overseas.