Keir Starmer walks fine line in shifting Labour’s stance on immigration

Party leader is reluctant to hint he will allow thousands into UK but wants to avoid upsetting his pro-migration MPs

In his speech to a hall packed with business leaders, Keir Starmer came with the message that Labour had changed, hoping to sweep away the years of antipathy between his party under its previous leadership and growth-hungry executives.

But another change in position was clear to see: on immigration, Starmer held up the recruitment of overseas workers as a sticking plaster solution to the problem of significant worker shortages in the UK.