Overview
- The Home Secretary has proposed tightening the route to indefinite leave to remain by extending the standard wait for settlement from five years to ten years for most migrants.
- Housing Secretary Angela Rayner renewed public criticism on Friday, saying the plan would ‘change the goalposts’ for carers who relocated to staff UK care homes.
- More than 100 Labour MPs, trade unions and campaign groups have publicly opposed the reforms and warned they could prompt a major party revolt at the conference.
- Campaigners and Labour figures say the policy’s retrospective element would affect a large cohort of care workers recruited under a health and social care visa route, a cohort estimated at roughly 185,000 between 2022 and 2024.
- The proposal remains in consultation, Mahmood has told MPs she will decide ‘very soon,’ and the issue is set to dominate the Labour conference with potential consequences for care staffing and party unity.