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I'm still not convinced by the argument that links investment in skills to migration.
I don't know if there is evidence on this or not - it doesn't seem to me to be the same point as whether immigration can affect wages (where from my reading of the studies I'd summarise the effects as being mixed, overall probably neutral or very slightly positive, with some winners and losers within that but all quite small effects).
But isn't part of the point that, rhetorically, govt makes the link between migration and skills / UK workforce. Starmer therefore needs to address both parts if he's talking about one - if he disagrees with anything on migration, he needs to be clear to say "but that doesn't mean I don't want workers to be trained + more invested in them". As otherwise he just gets attacked for not supporting training of UK workers
andyfallsoff-
the government makes the link between migration and skills / UK workforce
It does, and Starmer doesn't refute the point. He could have said something like "the gov't is wrong to blame immigrants for the failure of UK companies to invest in their staff and of government to provide opportunities for people to develop skills" but he quite deliberately didn't.
NickCJ
Thanks for the link. Perhaps I am going too far to say that there is no economic evidence, then.
I'm still not convinced by the argument that links investment in skills to migration. It also abdicates the State's responsibility to drive productivity growth from the supply-side.