&w=3840&q=100)
UK: Migrants a political problem, Starmer moots $4 bn-plan to upskill 120,000 British workers
The UK government has authorised plans to train over 120,000 builders, engineers and care workers to cut down the country's dependence on foreign labour as the Keir Starmer-led government moves to curb immigration.
The administration has allocated $4.1 billion to offer new apprenticeships, according to an official release on Tuesday. A 32 per cent hike in the Immigration Skills Charge, a fee paid by employers who sponsor skilled foreign workers, is expected to fund 45,000 additional training spots in sectors like construction and social care, which rely significantly on migrant labour. The government is also supporting initiatives aimed at adult education.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD
Tuesday's statement said a planned 32 per cent rise in the immigration skills charge, designed to dissuade businesses from hiring foreign workers, would deliver up to 45,000 additional training places to 'upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration' in priority sectors.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said, 'We're taking our responsibility seriously providing more routes into employment.'
Businesses have said they cannot hire enough staff locally, warning that the tougher rules would harm the economy unless they were accompanied by a fundamental overhaul of the country's skills training system.
Britain's PM Starmer has a two-pronged task ahead of him: to boost the indigenous workforce, all while clamping down on migration. His Labour Party has recently announced that the government will increase its English-speaking requirement for overseas workers which will eventually make it harder for migrants to stay in the country.
A recent analysis by Boston Consulting Group warned that the UK's supply chains could be strained by the $1.2 trillion in public and private infrastructure investment projected by the end of 2029. The report advised expanding the shortage occupations list to ease recruitment of overseas workers and suggested loosening English language requirements for key visa categories.
With inputs from agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
14 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Katy Perry's ex takes cheeky jab at her romance buzz with Justin Trudeau: ‘Friends or not?'
Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry seemed to make an 'instant connection' over dinner and then at a concert last month. The singer's ex-fiance, Orlando Bloom, is apparently enjoying the buzz around the new rumored romance. While there is no concrete evidence to confirm Trudeau and Perry's relationship status, reports suggest that they are 'interested in each other'. Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom appear at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in Beverly Hills(Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) The former Canadian prime minister and the pop star were recently seen enjoying dinner in Montreal, and Trudeau also attended her sold-out Lifetimes Tour concert at Bell Centre. PEOPLE quoted a source saying that the two had an 'instant connection', but any relationship between them is in the 'early stages'. However, soon memes targeted Katy Perry's ex, Orlando Bloom. Orlando Bloom responds to viral post Satirical outlet The Onion poked fun at Perry's romance rumors with Trudeau by pretending to set Bloom up with another former world leader - Angela Merkel. 'Orlando Bloom Spotted At Dinner With Angela Merkel,' a headline from The Onion, shared on Friday, read. The Instagram post was accompanied by what appeared to be an AI-generated image of the actor and the former Chancellor of Germany enjoying a candlelit meal together. "Just weeks after announcing his split with fiancée Katy Perry, English actor Orlando Bloom was photographed Friday dining with former German Chancellor Angela Merkel,' the newspaper further joked. 'Angela kept Orlando laughing all night — he couldn't keep his eyes off her!' said an insider source who spotted the pair sipping wine, slurping oysters, and splitting a decadent piece of chocolate layer cake at a Michelin-starred restaurant,' it added. Orlando Bloom was quick to react. Rather than brushing off The Onion's joke, the actor applauded, commenting '👏👏👏' on the post. Bloom did not elaborate. Last month, PEOPLE cited a source to report that Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau have 'a lot in common'. 'They are interested in each other, but it will take a while to see where this goes. She is traveling around the world, and he is figuring out his life now that he is no longer prime minister of Canada, but there is an attraction. They have a lot in common,' the source said.
The Hindu
44 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Why is northeast on edge about Assam evictions?
The story so far: The Assam government's drive to evict encroachers from forestlands has sent alarm bells ringing in other States of the region. Now, States bordering Assam are taking measures to ensure that those evicted from Assam do not cross over. When did the eviction drive start in Assam? The BJP came to power in 2016 by promising to secure jaati (race), maati (land), and bheti (hearth). Based on a Gauhati High Court order to reclaim encroached forestlands, the first eviction drive was carried out in three fringe villages of eastern Assam's Kaziranga National Park in September 2016. Two people died at Gorukhuti in north-central Assam's Darrang district when the eviction drive resumed in September 2021, five months after the BJP retained power and Himanta Biswa Sarma became Chief Minister. The eviction drives, allegedly targeted at Bengali Muslims, resumed in June 2025, coinciding with charges of corruption against the BJP-led government, one of them involving the purchase and redistribution of Gir cows for an agricultural project at Gorukhuti, from where migrant Muslims were evicted. What are the roots of the problem? Evicting encroachers from forestlands, wetlands, and government revenue lands is not a new phenomenon in Assam. However, the operation has been high on optics as the BJP and its sub-nationalist regional allies have accused the 15-year rule by Congress of having paved the ground for encroachment by the 'Bangladeshi', 'Miya', or 'illegal infiltrators' — pejoratives for Muslims with roots in present-day Bangladesh — for votes. This category of Muslims has long polarised electoral politics in Assam during and after the anti-foreigners Assam Agitation (1979-'85), which led to the signing of an accord prescribing a cut-off date — midnight of March 24, 1971 — for the detection, deletion (from electoral rolls), and deportation of 'illegal immigrants' or Bangladeshi nationals. Why is the drive overtly aggressive? The eviction drives have impacted non-Muslims as well, including 130 families whose houses were bulldozed to clear the Silsako Beel, a major wetland in Guwahati, of encroachment in 2022. Those against migrant Muslims, however, has garnered more attention for their scale and intensity, as it has led to the death of at least five people between 2016 and July 2025, when 1,080 families were evicted from 135 hectares of the Paikan Reserve Forest in Assam's Goalpara district. This aggression is also reflected in the rhetoric of the Chief Minister and other BJP leaders, who refer to the drive as a long-term exercise to save Assam from 'land jihad'. Before the drive was launched this year, the Chief Minister said 15,288.52 bighas of satra (Vaishnav monastery) lands remain illegally occupied by people of doubtful citizenship across 29 districts. He also referred to the Union Environment Ministry's report to the National Green Tribunal that 3,620.9 square kilometres of forest area in Assam were under encroachment as of March 2024. The Chief Minister vowed to continue the eviction drive until Assam is encroachment-free in 'at least 10 years', while clarifying that tribal people living in forest areas from before 2005 and covered by the Forest Rights Act would not be touched. This followed the fast-track resettlement of at least 12 Ahom families who were evicted along with migrant Muslims from village grazing reserves across four locations in northeastern Assam's Lakhimpur district. Why are Assam's neighbours jittery? Assam's neighbours were passive as long as the eviction drives were in areas far from the interstate borders. NGOs in Nagaland stirred into action after the Assam government announced an anti-encroachment drive in Golaghat district's Uriamghat. They saw it as a move to push 'illegal Bangladeshi immigrants' inside Nagaland under the agenda of usurping 'ancestral Naga lands'. Before the drive commenced, the police in Nagaland's Niuland district intercepted and turned 200 vehicles carrying 'illegal migrants' back to Assam. A few days later, a conglomerate of extremist groups announced a task force to guard the Assam-Nagaland border against infiltrators. The governments of Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram followed suit. They issued orders to the authorities in areas bordering Assam to increase vigilance, prevent the evicted people from coming in, and make the issuance of the inner-line permit, a temporary travel document, stricter. How are border disputes linked to eviction? Although opposition political parties in Assam see the eviction drive against Bengali-speaking Muslims as a part of the BJP's agenda of polarisation ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls, encroachment is at the core of the State's boundary disputes with Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Nagaland. These States were carved out of Assam between 1963 and 1972. In March 2025, the Assam Assembly was told that the four States have been occupying almost 83,000 hectares of land belonging to the State. These States have, off and on, driven migrant Muslims out to Assam, a State they accuse of having patronised 'illegal immigrants' and made them settle along the borders as a ploy to claim disputed lands. More than 350 people have died due to the inter-State disputes, which Assam has partially resolved with Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. On July 30, the Gauhati High Court directed these five States to constitute a high-level committee to facilitate a coordinated action to clear illegal settlements from forestlands.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Show proof of 'vote chori': Rajnath Singh to Rahul Gandhi
PATNA/NEW DELHI: Defence minister on Saturday slammed Congress neta for claiming to have an "atom bomb of evidence of vote theft" against , and dared him to detonate the explosive. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now At an event organised by a media house in Patna, Singh also likened the upcoming state polls to a crossroad, with one path (under ) leading to further progress and another (under the INDIA bloc) taking Bihar back to its old era of lawlessness and caste strife. "Rahul Gandhi says he is in possession of an atom bomb. If it is so, he should detonate it at once. He should just ensure that he is himself out of harm's way," Singh said. Gandhi had Friday said that his party has an "atom bomb" of evidence to prove "vote chori" by EC for BJP, remarks that evoked a sharp response from the poll panel. The commission termed Gandhi's remarks as "baseless and wild allegations". Singh also said the nation remembers his past rhetoric. "Rahul had threatened Parliament of an earthquake, but when he spoke, it turned out to be a damp squib." Singh said EC is an institution that enjoys a reputation for unquestionable integrity. "It is pulling out all the stops to ensure that the upcoming assembly polls in the state are held in a free and fair manner. It does not behove the leader of the opposition to make frivolous statements about a constitutional body," the BJP MP from Lucknow said. The defence minister reminded the LoP that his own party has blood on its hands, having tried to murder democracy in 1975 with the imposition of the Emergency. The defence minister also criticised the Congress-led opposition for raising questions about Operation Sindoor instead of paying tributes to the valour displayed by the Indian armed forces. The former BJP president alleged that the Congress had been soft on insurgency while in office, and tried to frame innocent people by spinning the theory of saffron terror because of vote bank considerations.
