LONDON – One year into Keir Starmer’s government, the promise to the British people to “take back control” lies in tatters. Instead of order, there is chaos. Instead of control, there is a collapse of credibility. The Starmer government has not only failed to get a grip on the nation’s borders; it has presided over a deepening crisis that has shattered public trust, overwhelmed our services, and left the country dangerously adrift.
The British public has delivered a clear, unofficial mandate: control our borders. Concern about immigration has skyrocketed to its highest point since the 2016 Brexit referendum, with nearly half the country (49%) now viewing it as a top national issue. A stunning two-thirds (67%) of Britons believe the number of people coming to the UK is simply too high. This is not a fringe opinion; it is a mainstream national consensus.
Yet, in the face of this overwhelming public demand, Keir Starmer’s government has proven to be catastrophically incompetent and, many would argue, deliberately deaf to the will of the people.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: A Record of Failure
While ministers desperately try to spin a fall in headline net migration, the figures on the ground paint a picture of abject failure. The current net migration level of 431,000 is not a success; it remains double the average seen throughout the 2010s. A historic crisis has merely been downgraded to a severe one.
On the issues that matter most to ordinary people, the situation has dramatically worsened under Labour’s watch:
- The Channel Invasion: The promise to “stop the boats” has been exposed as a hollow slogan. In the first five months of 2025, the number of illegal crossings of the English Channel was the highest ever recorded for that period—a shocking 42% increase on the previous year.
- Asylum System Collapse: The system is buckling. In the year to March 2025, asylum claims surged by 17% to a new historic peak of 109,000, surpassing the previous high set in 2002. The backlog remains enormous, with 110,000 people still awaiting an initial decision.
Starmer’s Deception: A Pro-Immigration PM in Disguise
At the heart of this failure is a Prime Minister the public simply does not trust. A YouGov poll reveals that Keir Starmer is overwhelmingly seen as “pro-immigration”. Among the voters Labour desperately claims it wants to win back—those who support Reform UK—a staggering
80% see Starmer as pro-immigration, while a pitiful 6% believe he is against it.
His government’s attempts to talk tough are seen as a cynical and futile charade. Polling shows that while a majority of Reform UK supporters see that Labour is trying to court them, a decisive 79% say they would never consider voting for the party. Starmer’s rhetoric, including his warning that Britain risks becoming an “island of strangers,” rings hollow when his actions produce the very outcome he claims to oppose.
The government’s flagship policy, the “Restoring control” White Paper, was a political disaster. Instead of reassuring the public, its release triggered a 15-point spike in public anxiety about immigration. The government’s signature attempt to show control only served to broadcast its own weakness.
A Policy of Chaos: Timid, Flawed, and Dangerous
The White Paper has been universally condemned as a package of timid and contradictory measures that will solve nothing. The right-leaning Centre for Policy Studies correctly dismissed it as “light on solutions,” noting that its proposals “fall some way short of those actually required” to bring migration down to acceptable levels. The think tank slammed the minor tweak to the Graduate visa as a token gesture that “will do nothing to address the problem” and criticised the government for kicking the can down the road on family visas and deporting foreign criminals.
Worse still, the government’s flawed policies are creating a new underclass of exploitable labour. By closing off stable visa routes and creating a “revolving door of temporary workers,” Labour is creating a system ripe for abuse, where a migrant’s right to be in the UK is tied to a single employer. The policies are too weak to stop the flow, but harsh enough to enable exploitation. It is a failure on every level.
Scandal at the Home Office: A Department Out of Control
The most damning indictment of Labour’s incompetence comes from the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC). In a devastating report, MPs found that the Home Office under Yvette Cooper has effectively “lost track” of illegal migrants working in the UK. The department has little idea if migrants are complying with visa conditions and fails to monitor when they leave the country.
The committee was scathing about the social care visa, concluding the Home Office opened the route without understanding the risks and that its response to the widespread exploitation of migrant workers has been “slow and ineffective”. In a shocking admission of this chaos, the PAC revealed the Home Office does not even know how many people on skilled worker visas have been referred as potential victims of modern slavery. This is not just policy failure; it is a structural breakdown of governance.
The Cost to Britain: Services and Society at Breaking Point
The consequences of this uncontrolled immigration are being felt in every community. The government itself admits that “unsustainably high levels of migration” have put our public services and housing under immense pressure.
- Infrastructure Collapse: Projections show that to cope with continued high migration, Britain could need over 8,000 new schools and 162 new hospitals by 2046.
- Housing Crisis: At current levels, we need nearly 190,000 new homes a year for new arrivals alone, at a time when we are failing to meet our overall building targets.
- NHS Overwhelmed: While the government boasts about waiting lists, the BMA confirms a “growing backlog of care,” with median waits for treatment remaining significantly higher than before the pandemic. The aggregate demand from mass migration is placing an intolerable strain on our health service.
- Social Cohesion Fractured: The government’s own documents warn that the rapid pace of migration makes it “harder to maintain community bonds”. This is now a reality for millions, with 44% of Britons saying they “sometimes feel like ‘strangers in their own country'”.
A New Mandate: The People Turn to Reform UK
As trust in Starmer’s Labour has evaporated, the British people have made their choice clear. A political realignment is underway, and Reform UK has emerged as the sole trusted voice on immigration.
A June 2025 YouGov poll shows that 36% of Britons believe Reform UK is the best party to handle immigration—triple the level of trust in Labour (12%) and over five times that of the Conservatives (7%). This dominance is confirmed across multiple polls, with Reform trusted most on handling Channel crossings (39%) and making illegal entry more difficult (42%).
Immigration is now the only major issue where the public has a clear preference for one party. For a growing number of voters, it has become the gateway issue that determines their entire political allegiance. While Labour and the Conservatives offer only broken promises and managed decline, Reform UK and the opposition Conservatives—with its proposed Deportation Bill—are offering the clear, decisive action the public is crying out for.
One year on, the verdict is in. Keir Starmer’s government has failed to control our borders, failed to implement credible policies, and failed to keep its promise to the British people. It has lost control of the system and, most importantly, it has lost the trust of the nation.
