Mahmood signals rethink on longer wait for UK settlement

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she is prepared to rethink plans to make foreign workers wait longer for permanent residence.

Speaking to Labour's annual conference, Mahmood said she had heard the argument that parts of the settlement reforms were unfair. The Government, she said, would seek a balance between fairness to people who came to the UK legally and fairness to British citizens. BBC

The remarks followed pressure from a significant number of Labour MPs and trade unions to soften the proposals. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is among the internal critics. Unison also opposes the changes.

Indefinite leave to remain, often called settlement, gives a person the right to live, work and study in the UK without a time limit and to claim benefits if eligible. It has long been the final step on most work routes. It provides secure status and a path to citizenship.

Mahmood had proposed raising the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain for most migrants from five years to 10 years. Staff who arrived on health and social care visas would wait 15 years under the plans. People who had claimed benefits for more than 12 months would wait 20 years.

No final decision has been taken. Home Office sources said no final decision on changes to the immigration rules had been taken.

Rayner criticised the plans earlier this year when she was a backbench MP. She said the Government was "moving the goalposts" and called the plans "un-British". She kept that criticism after returning to the cabinet as Housing Secretary.

Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said the changes would unfairly penalise overseas care workers. The union's case focuses on the longer wait for health and social care staff. Ministers have repeatedly said social care relies heavily on international recruitment.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham denied Mahmood had been forced to drop the plans because Rayner called them "un-British". The reforms, he said, had to strike the right balance. Asked by LBC if he was "Team Shabana" or "Team Angela", Burnham said he was both: "Team Angela and Shabana".

To put the conference remarks in context, they are a change of tone rather than a confirmed change of policy. Mahmood had previously said migrants would have to show they were contributing to society to earn the right to stay. Her programme, set out in Government statements last autumn and in spring, centred on earned settlement, where permanent residence is granted only if conditions such as being in work and having a clean criminal record are met. GOV.UK

Ministers said that package was a substantial overhaul of the legal migration model. A Home Secretary statement in November 2025, titled 'A fairer pathway to settlement', set the direction. A further announcement on 5 March 2026 required a higher standard of English to settle. Mahmood made the case in a speech to the Institute for Public Policy Research on 5 March 2026. Earlier reporting in March said the plans included ending indefinite leave to remain for migrants and making refugee status temporary.

Mahmood is also expected to use conference to announce the reopening of a scheme to resettle refugees in the UK. The scheme covers Afghan women and girls and Palestinians.

The broader context here is that the Government is addressing two audiences at once. Conference delegates want reassurance on fairness and on staffing, especially in care. The Home Office wants to keep a contribution-based model with longer routes and tighter conditions. Mahmood's wording leaves both options open.

In practical terms for employers and advisers, the detail to watch is narrow. The headline waiting period is one variable. The longer waits for care workers and for benefit claimants are a second. The rules on conduct, employment and English around any time limit are a third. None has been fixed in the rules. Until a draft or a statement of changes in immigration rules is laid, employers, advisers and caseworkers are working from a proposal, not law.

On the Westminster politics, the cabinet handling matters. Open disagreement between a Home Secretary and a Housing Secretary would normally raise questions about collective responsibility, the rule that ministers support agreed policy in public. Burnham's answer tries to close that down. He presents any revision as joint agreement on balance, not a concession to one side. Whether Labour MPs and unions accept that will depend on the final waiting periods and exemptions.