Sir Keir Starmer will lay out a new plan to cut legal migration following Thursday's local elections - where Labour is bracing for a Reform UK surge across the country.
A new "white paper" will look to close a loophole which sees foreign students come to the UK on graduate visas before taking up low-paid jobs in the "gig economy" or care sector. It is expected to be published before May 19.
That comes almost three weeks after reports emerged of a row between the Home Office and Department for Education over exactly that.
The two Whitehall departments were reportedly locked in a bitter feud over the visa pathway, which sees foreign students at UK universities graduate - only to end up working in low-skilled roles in the care sector or for food delivery companies.
As a result, the Home Office is pushing for a new requirement that students must find a graduate-level job to remain in the UK, according to the Financial Times
The two Whitehall departments were reportedly locked in a bitter feud over the 'Deliveroo visa' pathwayPAA Home Office source said today: "We've made a really strong commitment that the Home Secretary wants to reduce net migration. We will use the immigration white paper as a tool for that."
Labour power-brokers have identified cutting migration as a way to cut the flow of support to Nigel Farage's party - but Reform is projected to secure hundreds of council seats, multiple mayoralties and could win the Runcorn & Helsby by-election.
One Labour peer, Lord Glasman, has warned that Starmer's party would "get its head kicked in" by the surging Reform.
And a senior trade union figure told The Telegraph that a "sizeable" chunk of its members would vote for Farage's candidates on May 1.
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Labour power-brokers have identified cutting migration as a way to cut the flow of support to Reform UK
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But despite the Prime Minister's long-held pledges to slash legal and illegal migration, the South Coast has overseen the arrival of even more small boat migrants today.
GB News can reveal that the number of illegal migrants to have arrived in Britain in 2025 alone has now crossed the 10,000 mark during a period of hot spring weather.
And more are expected to join - from Tuesday to Friday this week in both Dover and Calais, temperatures will reach the mid-twenties, making illegal crossings easier and more attractive for prospective asylum seekers.
On Monday, five small boats have made the crossing in almost flat-calm conditions.
GB News provisional analysis of the latest figures reveals that around 10,150 small boat migrants have now crossed since the beginning of 2025GB NEWSA total of 10,150 small boat migrants have now crossed since the beginning of 2025, 40 per cent ahead of the 2024 figure for this point in the year.
Speaking to GB News, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned that 2025 has already been "the worst year in history for illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel".
He said Labour had been wrong to scrap the Rwanda scheme - and without it, he said, "the numbers are worse than ever".
A Home Office spokesman said: "We all want to end dangerous small boat crossings, which threaten lives and undermine our border security.
"The people-smuggling gangs do not care if the vulnerable people they exploit live or die, as long as they pay and we will stop at nothing to dismantle their business models and bring them to justice.
"That's why this government is investing in border security, increasing returns to their highest levels for more than half a decade, and imposing a major crackdown on illegal working to end the false promise of jobs used by gangs to sell spaces on boats.
"We have already secured agreement from the French to deploy a new elite unit of officers at the coast, launch a specialist intelligence unit, increase police numbers and introduce new powers for the French authorities to intervene in shallow waters."
