Shabana Mahmood remains under pressure from Labour MPs today, despite softening her proposed immigration reforms.
Almost 300,000 overseas care workers will be spared a crackdown that could otherwise have forced them to wait significantly longer before securing permanent residency in Britain.
When Ms Mahmood first unveiled the plan, she suggested that most of the 1.6 million migrants expected to become eligible for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) by 2030 would face extended qualifying periods. However, a Home Office document published yesterday increased that estimate to 1.9 million.
Crucially, the revised proposals mean only around a quarter of that group—approximately 500,000 people—will have to wait longer than five years.
Critics warned that the retreat could cost taxpayers £10billion over migrants’ lifetimes through welfare payments and other public spending, including NHS costs.
The original proposals had faced fierce opposition from trade unions and dissent within Cabinet, with both Angela Rayner and Miatta Fahnbulleh raising concerns.
In a series of interviews overnight, Ms Mahmood repeatedly refused to say whether pressure from Andy Burnham had prompted the reversal.
The Home Secretary, however, may still face further opposition, with Labour backbenchers demanding additional changes.
Shabana Mahmood remains embroiled in a Labour revolt despite watering down her proposed immigration reforms
Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell drew attention to a proposed 30-year wait for Channel migrants seeking settled status, warning that it could create a “generation of unsettled and insecure young people”.
Under the revised measures, around three-quarters of overseas care workers who arrived during the post-pandemic surge in migration—more than 282,000 people—will retain the existing five-year route to settlement, or indefinite leave to remain. The original plan, announced 12 months ago, would have imposed a 15-year wait.
ILR allows people to live and work in Britain indefinitely and claim benefits for the rest of their lives. Those who fail to qualify after five years will instead receive a new five-year visa, giving them a “second chance” to meet the requirements for permanent residence.
The revised package also reduces the proposed settlement period for other categories of workers, as well as some people who entered Britain as asylum seekers. Ms Mahmood said: “Settled status is one of the most valuable rights this country can offer.
“Until now, it has been granted almost automatically. From today, it must be earned.
“Those who contribute most will settle fastest. Those who do not follow the rules will either be refused or face a much longer wait.”
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused the Government of making “a substantial climbdown” from its original ILR policy after pressure from what he called the “open-borders Left”.
He said: “More than 250,000 low-wage care workers and dependants—even those who arrived fraudulently—will now be allowed to remain for at least ten years, while 75 per cent of them can stay permanently.
“The Government’s own figures show that this will cost taxpayers £10billion.
“That is completely unfair to hard-pressed taxpayers.”
He added: “The Government has also said that illegal migrants will have a route to citizenship and access to full benefits.
“In my view, illegal migrants should never be granted citizenship.”
Writing in today’s Our News Outlet, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Ms Mahmood had been “humiliated”. She wrote: “She wanted people to wait longer before settling permanently in Britain and accessing benefits. That was a perfectly reasonable principle, and one we would have supported.
“But Angela Rayner and Labour’s left-wing backbenchers opposed it, so the Government is preparing to exempt care workers already here.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described the move as “the beginning of the capitulation”, saying: “It is clearly a major U-turn by the Home Secretary. It is also clear that it will cost this country a vast amount of money.”
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The existing five-year ILR route will remain in place for other overseas workers in lower-skilled public sector roles, including teaching assistants, podiatrists and nursing auxiliaries.
Workers in other lower-skilled occupations will no longer face the 15-year wait previously proposed by Ms Mahmood. Instead, they may qualify for settlement after ten years.
The changes come only months after Ms Mahmood warned that abandoning her original blueprint, published last November, would create a “£10billion drain on public finances”.
She had argued that weakening the proposals would be “an affront to the idea of fairness within our society” and would place “further strain on public services like housing and healthcare”.
Officials said last night that the £10billion figure cited by Ms Mahmood was no longer current, while claiming the revised measures would still save “a few billion” pounds in welfare payments.
The leader of Britain’s largest trade union, Unison, claimed the organisation had “led the charge” in forcing Ms Mahmood to abandon parts of the policy.
Mr McDonnell said the climbdown had helped prevent the “collapse of social care in this country”.
But he added: “Shabana Mahmood has just confirmed that anyone who comes here through an ‘illegal method such as by a small boat’ will have to wait 30 years before applying for permanent settlement.
“Her argument is that refugees should arrive through new, safe and legal routes. The problem is that those routes barely exist, leaving many desperate people with no choice but to use alternative routes.
“The new rules mean that many people, including children, could spend 30 years living without the security of settled status.
“We risk creating a generation of young people who are unsettled and insecure.”
In the Commons, Labour MP Diane Abbott criticised the plan to place people earning less than £50,000 on a ten-year settlement route, doubling the current five-year period.
She said: “You can enter legally, work legally and then have your residency rights completely changed. How can that be fair?”
Ms Mahmood was “in danger of finding herself in the same position as the Home Secretary who was in office at the time of the Windrush scandal”, the Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP argued.
The Windrush scandal—later described by campaigners as a Home Office scandal—erupted in 2018 after British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in the UK.
Labour MP Stella Creasy questioned whether extending the settlement wait for people earning below £50,000 would help or harm the economy.
The Walthamstow MP said: “Around 200,000 people earning less than £50,000 are in work but do not have a British spouse or another connection, and are not employed in the care or public sectors. They include scientists, researchers and skilled technologists, who will now face a ten-year wait for settlement.”
Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, warned that migrants were being assessed at a time when “skills and contribution do not correlate with wages”.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said in today’s Our News Outlet that Ms Mahmood had been “humiliated” (file image)
John McDonnell warned that a 30-year settlement wait for Channel migrants could create “a generation of unsettled and insecure young people”
She said: “I am concerned about retrospective changes because our word should be our bond to people who come here.”
Backbencher Richard Burgon welcomed the exemption for care workers but said he would continue pressing for further amendments, including changes affecting refugees.
Labour MP Clive Lewis said the decision on care workers had been “soured” by leaving many low-paid employees facing a harsh, retrospective tripling of their qualifying period.
“This is wrong, and we will continue to highlight their plight. As a party of workers, we must stand for all of them,” he posted on X.
