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Portrait of the week: Immigration pledges, trade agreements and a new pope

The Spectator
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 17 May 2025
issue 17 May 2025

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Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said, ‘We risk becoming an island of strangers’ as the government published a white paper, Restoring Control Over the Immigration System. He stood by his words but ‘completely rejected’ suggestions that they echoed Enoch Powell’s phrase ‘strangers in their own country’ from his 1968 speech. The white paper said care workers would no longer be recruited from overseas. Migrants would have to wait ten years to apply to settle in Britain, instead of qualifying after five. Adult dependents would have to show basic English language skills. A tax on universities’ income from foreign students could also be introduced. A migrant died in a fire on a small boat trying to reach England; another 891 did reach England in the seven days to 12 May, bringing the year’s total to 12,407. The Sun reported that the Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, 18, had thrown boiling water over a prison officer in Belmarsh jail. A Lambeth council low-traffic neighbourhood scheme in Dulwich was ruled unlawful by the High Court. Half the London Underground was halted in a power cut associated with a fire at the same electricity substation at Maida Vale that caught fire a fortnight ago. A man was arrested in connection with a fire that damaged the front door of Mr Starmer’s north London house.

Britain agreed a framework to reduce American import taxes on a set number of British cars and allow some steel and aluminium into America tariff-free. But a 10 per cent tariff would remain on most British goods. The government said US hormone-treated beef would still be prevented from entering the UK.

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