People who migrate to the UK will be eligible for benefits and social housing only when they become British citizens, and those who arrive by small boat could wait up to 30 years for residency, under new plans outlined by Shabana Mahmood.
The plans could result in migrants only becoming eligible for benefits and social housing if they first become British citizens, rather than upon being granted settlement, as is currently the case.
More than 600,000 overseas health workers and their families who arrived in the UK as part of the so-called “Boriswave” of arrivals could have to wait up to 25 years to apply to settle if they have claimed benefits, under the plans.
The measures have been outlined as part of a radical set of rewritten rules for those who seek to apply to settle in the UK and comes days after the release of proposed changes to the asylum system.
It also comes as Mahmood is touted as a possible future Labour leader by “Blue Labour” MPs and as the party comes under pressure from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK in the polls.
The proposals have prompted concern from NGOs who say they will leave people in limbo.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “These proposals would risk trapping people who have fled war and persecution in three decades of instability and stress at the very moment they need certainty to rebuild their lives. Long waits for settlement and repeated reviews will only add very expensive bureaucracy and keep people in limbo.”
Christina McAnea, the general secretary of the UK’s biggest union, Unison, said the proposals would be devastating to thousands of essential workers.
“Judging someone’s worth by the size of their wage slip sends a dreadful message to the people who keep the UK’s public services running,” she said. “Forcing staff, many of whom stepped up during Covid, to wait 15 years for certainty about their futures betrays the promises they were made.”
Addressing the Commons, Mahmood said the plans were in response to an unprecedented scale of arrivals in recent years.
“To settle in this country for ever is not a right, but a privilege. And it must be earned. I am replacing a broken immigration system with one that prioritises contribution, integration and respect for the British sense of fair play,” the home secretary said.
The plan for “earned” settlement and doubling the wait time before being eligible for long-term status was announced in the government’s immigration white paper in May. Arrivals will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK after 10 years, instead of five years currently.
There will be ways for residents to qualify for settlement faster through a new contribution-based model, such as by volunteering in the local community, having a high level of English and not being on benefits.
The plans aim to curb applications from more than 1.6 million people who came to the UK under Boris Johnson’s government after a post-Brexit relaxation of rules from 2022 onwards.
Under the proposals, more than 600,000 people and family members who arrived on health and care worker visas will be eligible for settlement after 15 years. If anyone on such a visa or their dependants have claimed benefits for a year or more, this would increase to 25 years, under the proposals.
Visa overstayers and those who arrived in the UK on small boats and in the back of lorries would have to wait up to 30 years to settle, removing the prospect of long-term residence and security in the UK.
In contrast, doctors and nurses working in the NHS will be able to settle after five years. High earners and entrepreneurs will be able to stay after just three years, it is claimed.
The proposals, which are out to consultation until 12 February, mean that high earners will get faster routes to permanent status, while people with low or no earnings will have to wait much longer.
Madeleine Sumption, the director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said important questions about the status of children of temporary workers remained “unclear”.
“As written, the policy implies a much larger number of ‘mixed status’ families where some people have permanent residence rights and others do not,” she said.
Dora-Olivia Vicol, the chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said plans to raise the threshold for migrants on benefits were “particularly dystopian”.
“With the new proposals, the home secretary is punishing migrant families for getting sick or becoming vulnerable,” she said.
Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, the head of advocacy at the migrant charity Praxis, said: “These earned-settlement changes will devastate the lives of people across the UK and are completely at odds with the realities of this country’s economic needs … This is a retreat into a smaller, meaner England – one where belonging is rationed, and diversity is punished.”
Rachel Reeves will continue the government’s immigration crackdown at next week’s budget, when she announces a new team of investigators to find car washes, nail bars and takeaways that employ people illegally.
The chancellor will allocate £1m to the new team, which will report to the Fair Work Agency and will look for small businesses that break migration laws. The investigators will also work with immigration and tax officials so that they can take action against rogue employers.
Starmer told reporters: “It is too easy to work illegally in the UK, which is why we’re putting this extra money in, setting up this extra resource.”
Ministers announced earlier this year they were sending officials into small businesses across the country to look for people working illegally, with targets including small grocers and vape shops.
