KEIR Starmer is facing criticism after pledging to slash levels of migration to the UK and “hire Brits first”.

The Labour leader’s migration plan includes passing laws to ban law-breaking employers from hiring foreign workers and to train more Britons.

Last year’s net migration figure of 685,000 has “got to come down,” he told The Sun on Sunday, as he vowed to “control our borders and make sure British businesses are helped to hire Brits first”.

“Read my lips — I will bring immigration numbers down,” he said.

While encroaching on traditional Tory territory, Starmer hit out at successive Conservative governments for promising but failing to cut numbers.

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A Labour government would bar bosses who break employment law – for example by failing to pay workers the minimum wage – from hiring foreigners, the newspaper reported.

It would also legislate to link the immigration system to training, with businesses applying for foreign worker visas having to train Britons to do the jobs.

Starmer declined to name how much he planned to cut immigration figures or by when.

During a visit to the Port of Greenock on Friday, Starmer used Glasgow as an example to criticise the current level of migration.

“I’m not going to duck the challenge,” he told The Sun

“It’s got to come down. The 685,000 migration ¬number — it’s the second highest on record.

The National: Immigration

“We are near Glasgow and that’s more people than the entire city of Glasgow.

“The Conservatives repeatedly say they are going to cut these numbers. They have never done it. They have completely failed. They have never had a strategy to deal with it.”

The plan has already been criticised by the SNP, with Health Secretary Neil Gray describing it as “gutless economic self harm” while SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said it could impact key public services.

“All so predictable, all so depressing,” he said on X/Twitter.

“NHS and wider public services would not function without our essential migrant workforce.

“Business would not be able to grow without our essential migrant workforce.

“A race to the right-wing that Scotland's economy simply can't afford.”

It comes as Starmer is accused of purging the left-wing members of the Labour Party after numerous prospective candidates from the left were prevented from running in the General Election.