Sir Keir Starmer reassured businesses he is not going to “chop off their legs” with a rapid crackdown visas on for workers from abroad.
The Prime Minister stressed that he did not want to make firms “fall over” due to a change in immigration policy.
However, he also made clear that he expected bosses to work with the Government and town halls on building a skills strategy so people already in the UK could increasingly fill jobs in construction, the NHS, care, IT and other sectors.
He also raised concerns over the level of visa applications for posts in Britain where the number of apprenticeships for these roles was falling.
He believes that this showed that there was “something fundamentally wrong” with the nation’s skills blueprint at the moment.
However, he was clear that he was not about to rush in a clampdown on workers from abroad.
“What I’ve said to business...is I’m not going to chop your legs off by saying you can’t have the workers you need now,” he said.
“If you need people to work on the construction site now, next week, if you need people in the care sector now, then I’m not going to be anti-business and say right that’s it, I’m afraid you are going to fall over.
“But I’m not going to tolerate this year after year after year.
“So, we have to work on this together.”
The Prime Minister believes the UK’s current labour force system is not working properly.
“I was very struck with the number of visa applications for jobs that involved the skills where apprenticeship starts in this country have gone down,” he added, speaking to BBC radio.
“That signals to me that something is going fundamentally wrong.
“So, what I’ve said to business is I’m not going to chop your legs off, I’m not going to cause you to fail..
“But working with you over the coming years I want to see a skill strategy that makes sure we are less reliant on migration.
“That we have got the right skills that we need in this country and I’m absolutely convinced that if business works with local leaders according to a growth plan that we can achieve that.”
Previous Tory administrations have vowed to reduce immigration.
However, net migration hit a record 764,000 in 2022.
The impact of Brexit also meant that fewer workers are coming to the UK, compared to a growth in the number of people arriving in the country for family reasons or to study.
Past Conservative governments have tightened visa restrictions for overseas students, so most are now not able to bring dependents, and on the income threshold for foreign workers to get jobs in the UK.
In his keynote speech to Labour’s annual rally in Liverpool on Tuesday, Sir Keir said that businesses who break work visa rules would be banned from hiring employees from abroad as part of Government plans to reduce immigration.
He also told of “trade-offs” facing the country to build more homes, which may be opposed by NIMBYS, to put up electricity pylons, to get people more people back to work while supporting the welfare state, and on embracing wealth creation to fund levelling-up.
