The leader of Labor in Britain Keir Starmer, whose party is favorite to win the July 4 parliamentary elections, pledged to reduce the immigration in the country in an interview he gave to the newspaper The Sun.

“I will reduce immigration numbers,” Starmer said, an issue that the Conservativeswho have been in power for 14 years in Britain, have placed at the center of public dialogue.

Net migration rose to 685,000 people in 2023, according to official figures, the second highest level after the record 2022 (764,000).

“If you entrust me with the keys” to Downing Street, “I give you this promise: I will control our borders and make sure that British companies get help to hire British people first,” said the Labor leader, a former barrister who specialized in in human rights.

To achieve this Labor plans to ban company bosses who break employment laws from hiring workers from abroad and ensure that Britons are trained to fill jobs in sectors where there is a shortage of labor and which require from foreigners to issue work visas.

It is the first time Starmer, whose party leads Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives by about 20 points, has pledged to reduce immigration.

“I will not back down in the face of the challenge”, he stressed, denouncing the “failure” of the Conservatives to reduce immigration, despite their commitments,

“There should always be an option to hire a British worker first,” Starmer said in an interview with the Sun, which highlighted the risk of such statements sparking a “war” between the Labor leader and the left wing of the party. with which his relations are already strained.

Starmer has already announced that if Labor wins he will immediately cancel the Conservatives’ highly controversial plan to send illegal immigrants to Rwanda.