Labour softens migration settlement rules after cabinet backlash

Summarised from 3 outlets · 8 reports · Updated 6 Nov, 07:31 · Archive

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced changes to migration settlement rules, including exemptions for care workers after internal pressure.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a major overhaul of UK migration settlement rules, with changes affecting hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees.

Under the new plans, the standard wait to qualify for indefinite leave to remain will double from five to ten years for most skilled workers on visa routes earning below £50,000, excluding the social care sector. High earners and NHS staff will be able to apply sooner. Refugees who arrive by irregular means, such as small boats, will face a 30-year wait for settlement.

The proposals also include a £10,000 tax on most refugees once granted refugee status. The Refugee Council has criticised this as a breach of the UN refugee convention, warning it will leave people at risk of exploitation and severe poverty. Mark Joselin of the Refugee Council stated the measure will damage work incentives and undermine integration for those who have fled war and persecution.

After fierce backlash from health unions and Labour cabinet members, Mahmood announced a carve-out for care workers. An estimated 280,000 care workers and their dependents will be exempt from the longer waits and allowed to apply for indefinite leave after five years. However, The Guardian reports that only carers earning £25,000 annually and who entered the care staff visa route before 2025 will be eligible, leaving some workers open to exploitation.

The Refugee Council has accused Mahmood of hardening plans for asylum applicants. A cohort of 200,000 successful asylum applicants who were told they could apply for indefinite leave after five years now face reviews of their status every 30 months. The council said this contradicts Mahmood's reassurances last year that refugees would be spared the 10-year penalty for irregular arrival.

Mirror Political Editor Lizzy Buchan noted that Conservative criticism of Labour's reforms is difficult to credit given the Conservative Party's record in power, when net migration surged to 944,000 in the year ending March 2023 following Brexit.

How it is being reported

• Labour is playing a dangerous game with immigration – and here's whySo, the Government has backtracked on key parts of its plan to tighten the rules for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who has at least shown some understanding of the problems caused, economically and socially, by the phenomenon of mass immigration, has been outmanoeuvred by the open-border utopians inside the Labour Party’s ranks. The consequences of this volte-face for Labour are easily predictable. It will appeal to the assortment of progressive activists, metropolitan liberals and cosmopolitan universalists whom the party is desperate to pries away from…GB News · 6 Nov, 06:00
• Shabana Mahmood accused of hardening immigration plans for 200,000 successful asylum applicantsCohort who were told they could apply for indefinite leave now face ‘distress and uncertainty’ over 30-year ‘earned settlement’ plans Shabana Mahmood has been accused of causing “distress and uncertainty” to hundreds of thousands of refugees by quietly introducing plans to force them to wait up to 30 years before being granted the right to settle in the UK. The Refugee Council said the home secretary’s hardening of plans came despite her personal reassurances last year that only “illegal entrants who are not refugees will face a 30-year wait for settlement”. Continue reading...Guardian World · 5 Nov, 13:10
• How irrational are Labour’s plans for migrant workers? To find out, read the small printDespite the partial U-turn on care worker visas, the staff who keep the system afloat still face a hostile environment If you want to see the senselessness of Britain’s immigration debate play out in real time, look no further than the crackdown on care workers’ visas that came to a head this week . As part of its plans to force low-paid migrant workers to wait 15 years before settlement in the UK, the Home Office has been in a battle behind the scenes for the past six months to controversially include care workers in the policy. This is despite the social care system already facing critical…The Guardian · 5 Nov, 06:00
• 'A little rich of him': Why the Tories have no right to lecture Labour on border controlShadow Home Secretary Chris Philip laid into Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood earlier this week when she unveiled a massive overhaul of settlement rules for migrantsThe Mirror · 4 Nov, 17:50
• Why the UK settlement rule changes are unjust | LettersReaders question the motives and fairness behind Shabana Mahmood’s new immigration proposals This week, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, announced that many migrants on skilled worker visas earning below £50,000, outside the social care sector, will have to wait for 10 years to “earn” settlement ( Shabana Mahmood softens immigration plans in face of cabinet backlash, 2 November ). This blatantly overlooks the contribution of those whose work cannot be measured in high salaries. I arrived in the UK in September 2022 to pursue a master’s degree, for which I paid more than twice the fee…The Guardian · 4 Nov, 17:01
• The £10,000 refugee tax must be scrapped | LettersSuch a punitive measure will leave people at risk of exploitation and severe poverty, says Mark Joselin of the Refugee Council Cabinet ministers are right to be worried about the potential impact of the new asylum bill (Mahmood infuriates fellow ministers by failing to reveal impact of UK migration shake-up, 30 October) . The proposed refugee tax unfairly punishes refugees by threatening to slap most with a £10,000 tax once they are granted refugee status, a clear breach of the UN refugee convention. It is aimed at those who arrived with nothing and were not allowed to work while their…The Guardian · 4 Nov, 17:00
• UNHCR criticises UK’s 30-year ‘earned settlement’ plans for refugeesHome secretary Shabana Mahmood maintains rigorous rules for those who arrive on small boats UK politics live – latest updates The United Nations refugee agency has said a government plan to make refugees wait up to 30 years before they get permission to settle in the UK “raises significant concerns”. The strategy was unveiled earlier this week by Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, as she announced a softening of aspects of her immigration plans, but kept some of the rigorous rules drawn up by her office last year. Continue reading...The Guardian · 4 Nov, 13:47
• These cruel new plans to ‘stop the boats’ show the government completely misunderstands refugees like me | AnonymousHarsher settlement rules wouldn’t have stopped me fleeing hell in Syria to reach the UK. Now I’m here, they will just pile trauma on top of trauma I am a refugee and I am in shock at the home secretary’s announcement that people like me will now have to wait up to 30 years before they can apply for settlement in the UK – a sixfold increase on the current time period. It feels like a pile-on at a time when asylum seekers and refugees are already facing a barrage of hostility in this country. Even before the announcement, refugees felt under siege. With the withdrawal of the right to ever…The Guardian · 4 Nov, 08:00

In this story: Shabana Mahmood · Refugee Council · UK · Labour

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