The Home Secretary has hinted at a climbdown over her controversial immigration reforms.

Shabana Mahmood admitted her plan to make foreign workers wait longer before they can settle in Britain permanently has been branded 'not fair'.

And she told Labour's party conference – where she faced an angry protest from union chiefs over the proposal following criticism from her Cabinet colleague Angela Rayner – that the final decision would be fair for migrants as well as British citizens.

Ms Mahmood said in her speech today: 'As we restore control and fairness to our asylum system, we must do the same for legal migration too: Fair to those who seek a new and better life here, like my parents did, and fair to those already here, including British workers, especially the young.

'That same principle underpins my reforms to the right to live here indefinitely, ensuring settled status is earned, by those who have shown a consistent commitment to this country.

'I know that, throughout our consultation process, some have said elements of these reforms are not fair. 

'To that: let me say this. We will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country.'

Sources close to the Home Secretary insisted that no decision had been taken yet on her proposals for 'earned settlement', with the final position expected in the autumn.

But her comments will be widely interpreted as signalling a watering down of the plan to make migrant workers wait up to 15 years before they can claim Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), up from five currently.

It came shortly after the head of Britain's biggest trade union accused her of having 'fuelled the far-Right' with the 'dehumanising' move that will apply retrospectively to migrants who have arrived since 2021, including many care workers.

Andrea Egan, General Secretary of Unison, told a demonstration outside the event in Liverpool: 'People who came to this country to help look after our loved ones are forced to work on restricted visas under harsh rules which make them second class citizens.

'Moving the goalposts at this stage in the game is wrong and unfair. Migrant workers must not be made scapegoats for decades of political failure to invest in public services.'

And in an eve-of-conference interview she told The i Paper: 'I think Shabana Mahmood's proposals have fuelled the far-right.'

The Home Secretary also came under attack at the weekend from Communities Secretary Ms Rayner, who said: 'Especially in regards to the carers, who were asked to come to this country to care for some of our most vulnerable and then we changed the goalposts years down the line, I think that's very disruptive.

'I do have concerns about that. when you ask someone to come here and look after your most vulnerable and they spend years dedicating themselves, moving their lives here to look after our loved ones.'

Andy Burnham played down splits between the pair, however, saying it 'just reflects that there's a consultation, and there's different not just opinions from politicians, but obviously there's a range of views that have gone into that consultation'.

But asked about Ms Rayner's claim the reforms should be abandoned because they are 'un-British', he delivered a rebuke, telling LBC: 'Well, no, I wouldn't put it that way. I think what we've got to do is strike the right balance, and that's what the end result of the consultation will be.'

The Prime Minister said ministers were giving 'careful thought' to whether the retrospective changes should be applied to foreign care workers.

'The Home Office have been doing a consultation on that very subject,' Mr Burnham said. 'So we will clearly be giving very careful thought to the responses that we've received. It has brought a lot of interest, but I do see there are lots of people working in our care system who've come from abroad. I think it's really important that we say to them that we recognize what they are doing day in day out. We could not do without them. The care system may well not function were they not there.!

Just before the Home Secretary's speech, her former immigration minister Mike Tapp wrote on social media: 'We must exempt foreign care workers from the retrospective settlement extensions and we must introduce an umbrella care sponsor system – to end this exploitation of hard working decent people.'