Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed Monday to reduce the UK’s “long-term reliance on overseas workers” as he unveiled a new skills training organisation aimed at boosting productivity and economic growth.
Starmer said his government hopes the new body — named Skills England — will transform “not just how we train our young people and adults, but also the relationship between business and education system”.
In a speech at the Farnborough International Airshow, the new UK leader added that many young people had been “let down” by a lack of skills training, creating an overreliance on migration within the economy.
“I do not criticise businesses who hire overseas workers and I certainly don’t diminish the contribution that migration makes to our economy, to our public services and of course to our communities,” he told the audience.
“Yet if you stand back, as a system it cannot be right that some people …