A Reform UK MP has said that the Labour government sounds “more like Reform than Reform”, following the newly announced measures to curb legal migration.
Sarah Pochin, the Reform MP for Runcorn and Helsby, claimed that the prime minister’s recent rhetoric shows that her party has Labour “on the run”.
Pochin is Reform’s first female MP, after she was elected to represent Runcorn and Helsby at a by-election earlier this month. She beat the Labour candidate, Karen Shore, with a majority of just six votes, the narrowest majority in a UK parliamentary by-election since the Second World War.
In an interview with Times Radio, Pochin addressed the government’s clampdown on legal migration and the associated controversy over the prime minister’s language.
Keir Starmer gave a speech in Downing Street on Monday morning to announce that every area of the UK’s “broken” immigration system will be tightened.
Under the new white paper proposals, migrants will be told they must learn English and “earn the privilege” to live in the UK.
Migrants will also be told they need to spend a decade in the UK before they can apply for citizenship and English language requirements will be increased.
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In his news conference address, Starmer said he will implement “fair rules” to prevent the UK becoming an “island of strangers” — a comment that has attracted considerable criticism.
Commenting on recent developments, Pochin said: “Clearly, Reform have got [the government] on the run.
“They know what the electorate want to hear. They’ve seen the devastating impact of our policies on their results in these latest set of elections, and so now, yes, they’re sounding more like Reform than Reform are.”
The Reform UK MP told Times Radio: “[But] the electorate are not stupid. They have seen 14 years of Tory failure when it comes to managing the immigration crisis, and particularly illegal immigrants, and they’ve seen 10 months very quickly of Labour doing absolutely nothing to make any inroads into it at all.
“Have they stopped the boats? No, this weather’s beautiful — more and more coming in every day. The electorate, as I say, they’re not daft. They know that Labour are now speaking this rhetoric because they think that that’s what the electorate wants to hear.
“Only Reform is going to sort this out. Everything that came out yesterday is just a bit of bluster, a bit of waffle.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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