Criminals and people who cannot speak English to “a high standard” will be denied permission to settle in the UK, Shabana Mahmood will announce on Monday, in proposals intended to contain the growing electoral threat from Reform UK.
In a speech framing herself as a “tough home secretary”, Mahmood will say people seeking indefinite leave to remain (ILR) will have to demonstrate they have integrated and “contributed” to society through national insurance payments and voluntary work, and not relied on benefits.
Mahmood will raise the possibility that those arriving could live in the UK for a decade and still be denied permission to stay if they fail to meet new standards, while others will be fast-tracked. A consultation will be launched later this year.
The proposals will be seen as a direct response to Nigel Farage’s announcement last week that Reform would scrap ILR for non-EU citizens and bar them from claiming benefits, including those who have already been granted the status. On Sunday Keir Starmer attacked Farage’s plans as “racist” and “immoral”.
Labour said there was a clear dividing line between the government’s proposals and Reform UK’s pledge to scrap settled status for all people from outside the EU.
At present, “indefinite leave to remain” is usually granted after five years when basic conditions are met. It is a key route to gaining British citizenship and allows people to claim benefits.
In the immigration white paper published in May, the government announced that this standard qualifying period would be changed to a baseline of 10 years.
Mahmood will set out a series of proposed conditions for gaining ILR including being in work, not taking any benefits payments, learning English “to a high standard”, having a “spotless criminal record” and giving back to local communities.
Details will be developed in a consultation, but Mahmood is likely to want to set a low bar on which criminal offences have a bearing on ILR qualification, while excluding motoring offences.
Some crimes would result in automatic disqualification while others could result in a penalty in terms of additional years before ILR is granted, sources said.
Mahmood believes that after living in the UK for several years, the standard of English of people seeking ILR should be high.
Some, based on their contribution or skills, could be granted settlement earlier, she will say. Others who have made a lesser contribution will only be given ILR later, or not at all.
Mahmood will say she will be a “tough Labour home secretary, fighting for a vision of this country that is distinctly our own”.
Addressing fears among Labour members that Starmer’s party should not attempt to take on Reform’s hard-right policies, she will warn that if the government does not succeed, “working people will turn away from us – the party that for over a hundred years has been their party – and seek solace in the false promises of Farage”.
Labour officials have become increasingly positive about their ability to take on Farage over immigration. Officials in No 10 and in Mahmood’s office believe the Reform leader made a strategic mistake in saying last week that people who have already been granted ILR would have to reapply for new visas with tougher rules, a policy they believe would be unpopular and unfair.
Mahmood, in a personal section of the speech, will touch on her parents’ experience arriving in the UK, and why the acceptance of migrants depends on their contribution to local communities. She will talk about her own experiences as a victim of shoplifting while working behind the till of her family’s corner shop as a child, and why that inspired her to crack down on street-level crime.
Reform said it would abolish ILR and require people to reapply for visas every five years. That would include hundreds of thousands of those who are already in the UK. Applicants would also have to meet certain criteria, including a higher salary threshold and standard of English.
The Conservatives plan to ban those arriving from settling indefinitely in the UK if they claim benefits or social housing, or have a criminal record.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said Labour’s plans to penalise those who claimed benefits risked building more barriers for refugees.
“We know that refugees want to feel part of, and give back to, the country that has provided them with safety,” he said. “It is much harder for a refugee to find their feet straight away without relying on benefits at all – especially if they have been given less than 30 days to find somewhere to live. Almost all people seeking asylum are not allowed to work and are forced to rely on state support.
“By punishing refugees for needing help, we are saying to them that no matter how hard you work in the future, you’ll never have a safe permanent home in Britain. This is the opposite of encouraging integration.”
A YouGov MRP polling projection released on Friday, based on a sample of 13,000 people taken over the last three weeks, suggested a general election would result in a hung parliament, with Reform UK winning 311 of the 650 seats, 15 short of the 326 required for a majority.
