Shabana Mahmood has set out sweeping changes to the rules for migrants wanting to get the right to live in the UK.
They mean people who have moved here from overseas face a wait of between three and 30 years depending on how they arrived and what they have done since.
The Home Secretary has made several tweaks to her plans following a large-scale consultation – including watering down measures concerning social care workers who arrived after the Covid pandemic.
She said the policy creates a migration system that is ‘fair to those who come here and play their part, and fair to British citizens already here, who must not be asked to bear a greater burden’.
The various timelines to settlement that apply to different groups are:
- Three years: For migrants making over £125,141 and paying the additional rate of tax; and highly skilled migrants on routes like Global Talent and Innovator Founder
- Five years: For migrants making over £50,271 and paying the higher rate of tax; skilled public sector workers such as doctors, nurses and teacher; and refugees who have arrived via the government’s safe and legal routes
- 10 years: The new standard for all other migrants earning below those thresholds; and refugees who did not arrive by small boats – for example, by arriving on a visa and applying for refugee status after it runs out – and are now working or studying
- 20 years: For any migrant who claims certain benefits while in the UK or commits a visa offence; refugees who did not arrive by small boat but are not working or studying; and refugees who arrived by small boat and are now working or studying
- 30 years: For refugees who arrived by small boat but are not working or studying
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In a change to the original plans, those who arrived on a care visa between the pandemic and May last year will be able to settle after five years – as long as they met their visa conditions, earning at least £25,000 a year.
Those who did not meet their visa conditions due to dodgy companies sponsoring them for jobs that didn’t exist – around a quarter of the total who arrived – will get a second shot with a new five-year visa.
The visa will only apply if they are able to get an offer of a secure job within 120 days. If they are not able to, they will need to leave the UK.
Under the previous plans, migrant care workers already in the UK would have had to wait 15 years to gain indefinite leave to remain.
Those plans had attracted criticism from Mahmood’s fellow Labour MPs, including members of Andy Burnham’s front bench after he became prime minister in July.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said she was thought the moves were unfair as they ‘change the goalposts’ on timelines for people already in the country.
And Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, wrote and then deleted a post on her website saying the policy would ‘prolong the process of building cohesion’.
However, backlash to the plans from Labour MPs in the House of Commons was minimal after the home secretary’s statement.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp – who was an immigration minister under Boris Johnson – criticised what he described as a U-turn over settlement for care workers.
He said: ‘The home secretary is no longer running the government’s immigration policy.
‘The housing secretary is, and [Mahmood’s] position is looking increasingly untenable.’
In addition, the Home Office is tightening up the conditions for anyone to secure settlement in the UK.
According to the new rules, they will need to have a spotless criminal record; speak English to an A-level standard; have a record of three years contributing to National Insurance; and owe no debt to the British taxpayer.
The changes will be implemented over the course of next year after starting to be laid next month.
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