Sir Keir Starmer has been dealt a fresh blow as another Labour grandee has lambasted the party over immigration.
Yesterday, former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair hit out at governments for trailing behind on the climate change agenda.
Now, ex-education secretary Alan Johnson has piggybacked onto Blair's criticism and issued a stark warning that Britain's top-notch higher education institutions could now endure Labour's wrath as the party advances its immigration crackdown.
“They need to recognise that we have world-class universities, and they are under threat for a variety of reasons,” Johnson told the BBC.
The criticism from Johnson comes as the PM and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper ready themselves to reveal a white paper in the coming weeks on how Labour intends to tackle net migration
PA
“If they don't grasp this, if they make the mistake of believing that the way to solve the migration problem is to ruin our universities and close some of them - that's how stark this is - they will be making a very big mistake.”
The criticism comes as Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper ready themselves to reveal a white paper in the coming weeks on how Labour intends to tackle net migration.
It is expected that the legislation intends to make it more challenging for overseas students to remain in the UK after net migration skyrocketed to a record high of 900,000 in 2023.
In the year ending June 2024, net migration of international students to the UK was estimated at 262,000, lower than the previous two years.
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Johnson said Britain's top notch higher education institutions could now endure Labour's wrath as the party advances its immigration crackdown
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICKJohnson's warning comes after Blair broke ranks with the Labour leader's climate change policies, stating that voters “feel they’re being asked to make financial sacrifices and changes in lifestyle when they know that their impact on global emissions is minimal”.
Blair’s think tank, The Tony Blair Institute (TBI), also labelled the climate change debate as “riven with irrationality”, warning that strong support for Net Zero is waning.
Following a phone call, Blair later clarified that his remarks were not a criticism of the government or Ed Miliband and that he supports Labour’s approach on net zero.
Environment Secretary Steve Reed has defended the Government's net zero policies after criticism from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, describing his comments as “helpful”.
Former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has claimed that Labour's current net zero policies are 'doomed to fail'PASpeaking to GB News, Reed explained the rationale behind current policies, emphasising the importance of energy independence.
The Environment Secretary argued that generating more energy domestically through wind, wave, solar and nuclear would allow Britain to “take back control of our own energy”.
“If we can take back control of our own energy by generating more of it here at home, wind, wave, solar and nuclear, we can guarantee the supplies because we control them,” Reed said.
