he said sort of cryptic things, migration is too high, yes, i think 700,000 were there it s too big, but today, for the first time in this campaign, he s been clear about a commitment to get the numbers down, which that is a different thing to saying i think it s too high, why? should the next general election be around that time, people like you and me will say you made a commitment in the last general election, how have you delivered against it? i also think it s significant because of the politics of it and the politics of it are pretty obvious and we should bill it out anyway. this is keir starmer, yet again, as he has every day since, though, it was a bit different at the start, he is trying to basically bash voters over the head with a message that he is moving the labour party way to the right of where it was in 2019 and 2017 general elections when their approach to immigration would ve been quite different to this. that is the message here. we can see this is the mess
hello. welcome to the programme. we start this hour here in the uk with the general election campaign. labour says it s committed to reducing the number of people legally migrating to britain if it forms the next government. but speaking earlier, the shadow home secretary yvette cooper refused to set a target or any date by which a reduction would be achieved. net migration, the difference between the number of people arriving in the uk and leaving, stood at 685,000 last year. labour s plans include more apprenticeships in jobs that are currently reliant on a significant level of migrant workers. here s our political correspondent ione wells. immigration is a sticky issue in this election campaign, and both major parties say they want to control it. labour says it would train more uk workers to fill skills shortages and it says firms that pay exploitative wages would be banned from hiring foreign workers. but labour have not put a figure on how much they would reduce it by, a
starmer was visiting greenock last friday he talked about the damaging conflicts ongoing between the uk and the scottish government and he pledged to improve that relationship should he become prime minister. do you commit to working with him on that, on that toxicity that we have seen, even if he suggests it ends up denting the support of independents? i have been engaged with intergovernmental relationships with the government for many years and i have had many occasions where that has been successful and constructive and many where it has been difficult and many where it has been difficult and we have not been able to get agreement. for most of the time that has been a respectful environment. i would say that my experience of the gordon brown government, the cameron and clegg government, the following cameron government and the theresa may governments were generally on issues that affected people prosper but lives pretty constructive. i have to say, i was part of those dis
let s get more on this from our deputy political editor vicki young who s in the newsroom. first of all, can you remind us what actually took place here. this first of all, can you remind us what actually took place here. actually took place here. this has been quite actually took place here. this has been quite a actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, and actually took place here. this has been quite a saga, and has - actually took place here. this has - been quite a saga, and has dominated the first week of campaigning for labour. i think most people agree that the leadership hasn t handled it very well. as you said there, diane abbott under investigation for many months, over a year in fact, after she wrote a letter and in it she said thatjewish, irish and traveller people do not face racism all their lives. because of that, she was suspended from the parliamentary labour party. as i say, this
can you hear us? what do you make of what the first ministerjohn swinney had to say this afternoon? yes. what the first ministerjohn swinney had to say this afternoon? had to say this afternoon? yes, i can hear you- had to say this afternoon? yes, i can hear you- i had to say this afternoon? yes, i can hear you. i think had to say this afternoon? yes, i can hear you. i think there - had to say this afternoon? yes, i can hear you. i think there were | had to say this afternoon? yes, i i can hear you. i think there were key themes from john swinney during that speech. perhaps none of them completely unexpected. he talked about the snp s record in government. of course, this is a westminster election but the snp has beenin westminster election but the snp has been in power at holyrood in edinburgh for 17 years, so he talked about some of what he sees as the party was my achievements there. another central theme was about voting for the snp to get rid of the conservatives in westmins