UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham is thinking about exempting hundreds of thousands of care workers from tougher immigration rules proposed by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, according to The Guardian. The exemption probably will not appear in Burnham's upcoming speech on social care, expected the week after 24 July 2026. It could come later in 2026 after a public consultation by the Home Office.

Mahmood's plan would double the time migrant workers must wait before they can apply for settled status. Settled status, also called indefinite leave to remain, means the right to live in the UK permanently. For care workers, the wait would stretch to 15 years (The Guardian). Workers' rights campaigners called the extension "cruel and unconscionable." Mahmood has said she will consider exemptions and has been in talks specifically about care workers (The Guardian). The pushback has been loud: Alf Dubs called for Mahmood to be removed as home secretary and for her asylum plans to be scrapped entirely.

The care sector relies heavily on migrant workers. The Home Office granted about 200,000 health and care worker visas in the five years before July 2026. The government's own Spring 2025 assessment assumed that 100 per cent of care and senior care worker jobs would be restricted under the new rules (UK Government.

Burnham became Prime Minister in 2026 after serving as Mayor of Greater Manchester (Reuters). He succeeded Keir Starmer. In his first week in office, Burnham said he wanted to reform social care in England (Nuffield Trust. The week after 24 July 2026, he will give a speech about creating a National Care Service before the next UK general election.

The speech is personal. Burnham's father, Roy, has Alzheimer's disease, and the Prime Minister will talk about this experience directly. Burnham also has a long history with the issue: he served as health secretary more than 15 years before July 2026 and tried to reform social care then. He once proposed replacing inheritance tax with a 10% levy on all estates to fund a universal care system, but the Conservatives scrapped the idea by calling it a "death tax."

The pressures are real. In England, people only qualify for state-funded care if they have less than £23,250 in assets. Louise Casey's review into England's social care sector was originally due in 2028; Burnham is speeding it up. Andrea Egan, who leads Unison, the UK's largest union, represents workers directly affected by both the immigration changes and the broader reform plans.

The broader context here is that two big policy efforts are heading in different directions. Mahmood wants to tighten immigration rules, treating care workers the same as other migrant workers. Burnham's social care plans depend on keeping those same workers in their jobs. If workers cannot see a path to staying permanently, they have less reason to stay in a sector known for low pay and high turnover. The Home Office's own assessment, by assuming all care roles would be restricted, quietly acknowledged this trade-off.

The exemption would let care workers skip the longer settlement timeline, treating them as a special case within otherwise stricter rules. Whether that happens depends on the Home Office consultation, which has not finished. What is clear is that Burnham's speech will frame social care as a top priority for his first term, with the Casey review sped up and a National Care Service put forward as a goal before the next election.

The tension is at the top of government. Two senior cabinet members are pursuing plans that pull in opposite directions when it comes to care workers. Mahmood's department is designing rules that would make it harder to settle permanently. Burnham's office is considering whether the sector those workers hold together deserves an exception. The consultation will decide which approach wins.