Mahmood unveils plan to make UK’s rules on migrants staying permanently ‘by far most controlled and selective in Europe’
The Home Office has now published its policy document on “earned settlement”.
And it has sent out a news release (not online yet) with the main points of the plan. It says the proposals will make “Britain’s settlement system by far the most controlled and selective in Europe”.
For the record, here are the proposals.
Earlier this year, the government announced it would double the permanent settlement qualifying period for migrants to 10 years, with reductions for those making a strong contribution to British life.
The changes will apply to almost two million migrants who arrived in the UK from 2021, subject to consultation on transitional arrangements for borderline cases. It will not apply to those with existing settled status who have made their lives here.
Low-paid workers, such as the 616,000 people and their dependants who came on health and social care visas between 2022 and 2024, would be subject to a 15-year baseline. The route was closed earlier this year following widespread abuse.
For the first time, it can also be revealed there will be penalties for immigrants exploiting the system. The reforms will make Britain’s settlement system by far the most controlled and selective in Europe.
Migrants reliant on benefits face a 20-year wait for settlement – quadruple the current period and the longest in Europe.
Landmark proposals could see migrants only become eligible for benefits and social housing if they first become British citizens, rather than upon being granted settlement as is currently the case.
Illegal migrants and visa overstayers 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. To support economic growth, the brightest and best of international talent could have settlement fast-tracked – with high earners and entrepreneurs able to stay after just three years.
Due to record high levels of migration under the previous government, 1.6 million migrants are set to become eligible for settlement by 2030.
Transitional arrangements for those already in the UK will be set out following a consultation. However, the intention is that anyone yet to be granted settlement would be subject to the contribution-based model once the new rules are in force.
The reforms will build a fairer immigration system for British people, while doing the right thing by migrants who have made their life here and contributed to the UK’s economy and public services.
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Updated at 08.11 EST
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Mahmood says benefit claimants, and people who arrived illegally, would have to wait more than 10 years for settlement
Mahmood explained the circumstances in which people might have to wait more than 10 years for settlement.
The government proposes that those who have received benefits for less than 12 months would not qualify for settlement until 15 years after arrival.
For those who have been paid benefits for more than 12 months, that would rise to 20 years.
To encourage the use of legal routes into this country, those who arrive in Britain illegally could see settlement take up to 30 years.
As has already been set out, refugees on core protection will qualify for settlement after 20 years – although those who move to a work and study visa could earn settlement earlier, and those arriving by a safe and legal route would earn settlement at 10 years.
This consultation is open on some cohorts of special interest. This includes settlement rights for children, members of the armed forces and victims of certain crimes.
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Mahmood also said some people would have to wait more than 10 years for settlement.
ShareLibby Brooks
Away from the Commons, my colleague Libby Brooks has this report on the new rules on access to single-sex spaces.
The UK government has insisted it will take as much time as necessary to “get right” new rules on access to single-sex spaces after a leak of guidance submitted by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) raised concerns that its publication was being deliberately delayed.
The equalities watchdog submitted its formal guidance on how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond to April’s landmark supreme court ruling on biological sex to the UK government in September. Since then, its outgoing chair, Kishwer Falkner, has urged the equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson, to approve it “as soon as possible”.
Ministers are still considering the final guidance, which must be approved by Phillipson before being laid before parliament. Phillipson said on Thursday she was going through it “thoroughly and carefully”.
She told reporters: “I have responsibilities to make sure that’s done properly and we’re taking the time to get this right.
“This is an important area and we want to make sure that women have access to a single-sex provision – that’s incredibly important for domestic violence services, rape crisis centres, so that women are able to heal from the trauma they’ve experienced.
“But of course, trans people should be treated with dignity and respect.”
The children’s minister, Josh MacAlister, said that rushing out the new guidance could risk further legal action. “We’re doing this as fast as we can and there’s no deadline that we’re putting on it. We want to get it right, and if we don’t get it right, it does risk putting this back into the courts and providing even greater uncertainty for people,” he said.
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Updated at 08.54 EST
How some migrants could qualify for settlement more quickly, including higher-rate taxpayers
Mahmood said other criteria are being proposed today for consultation. She said these would either add or substract from the 10-year qualifying period. They would be based on the value people offer to society.
She went on:
Those who speak English to a degree level standard could qualify for a nine-year path to settlement.
Those paying the higher rate of tax could qualify at five years, while those on the top rate could qualify after three – the same as those on global talent visas.
Those who work in a public service, including doctors, teachers, nurses, would qualify after five years.
While those who volunteer, subject to this consultation, could qualify between five and seven years.
Not subject to consultation, the partners of British citizens will continue to qualify at five years, as today. This is also true of British nationals overseas from Hong Kong, who will qualify at five years in honour of our unique responsibilities to them.
All grants under the Windrush and EU settlement scheme also remain unchanged.
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Mahmood says 4 new criteria will apply to people wanting settlement: no criminal record, A level-type English, NI contributions and no debt
Mahmood also said new criteria would be added for people applying for settlement.
Firstly, the applicants must not have a criminal record.
Secondly, they must speak English to A level standard.
Thirdly, they must have made sustained national insurance contributions.
And finally they must have no debt in this country.
Mahmood said these four criteria would apply to everyone wanting settlement.
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Mahmood says starting point for settlement to rise from 5 year to 10
Mahmood said that settlement in the UK should be a privilege
To settle in this country forever is not a right but a privilege, and it must be earned.
That is not the case. Settlement or indefinite leave to remain comes almost automatically after five years residence in this country.
At that point, a migrant gains access to many of the rights of a British citizen, including to benefits.
As a result of the unprecedented levels of migration in recent years, 1.6 million are now for now forecost to settle between 2026 and 2030, with a peak of 450,000 in 2028 – arouund four times higher than the recent average. That will now change.
Mahmood said the starting point for settlement will change from five years to 10, as the government said in its white paper earlier this year.
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Mahmood accused the last government of losing control of immigration.
Using a term coined by the online right, she said that the “Boriswave” happened when immigrationt controls were lifted. She said, because the government needed to fill jobs, 616,000 workers and their dependents came to the UK on health and social care visas between 2022 and 2024.
She said more than half of those people did not even fill those jobs.
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Mahmood started by making the argument that, as the daughter of immigrants, she had a particular interest in promoting social cohesion. She said that, if this broke down because of the government losing control of immigration, then people like her were more likely to suffer discrimination.
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Mahmood makes statement to MPs on earned settlement rules
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is making her statement to MPs now about the new earned settlement rules.
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Mahmood unveils plan to make UK’s rules on migrants staying permanently ‘by far most controlled and selective in Europe’
The Home Office has now published its policy document on “earned settlement”.
And it has sent out a news release (not online yet) with the main points of the plan. It says the proposals will make “Britain’s settlement system by far the most controlled and selective in Europe”.
For the record, here are the proposals.
Earlier this year, the government announced it would double the permanent settlement qualifying period for migrants to 10 years, with reductions for those making a strong contribution to British life.
The changes will apply to almost two million migrants who arrived in the UK from 2021, subject to consultation on transitional arrangements for borderline cases. It will not apply to those with existing settled status who have made their lives here.
Low-paid workers, such as the 616,000 people and their dependants who came on health and social care visas between 2022 and 2024, would be subject to a 15-year baseline. The route was closed earlier this year following widespread abuse.
For the first time, it can also be revealed there will be penalties for immigrants exploiting the system. The reforms will make Britain’s settlement system by far the most controlled and selective in Europe.
Migrants reliant on benefits face a 20-year wait for settlement – quadruple the current period and the longest in Europe.
Landmark proposals could see migrants only become eligible for benefits and social housing if they first become British citizens, rather than upon being granted settlement as is currently the case.
Illegal migrants and visa overstayers 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. To support economic growth, the brightest and best of international talent could have settlement fast-tracked – with high earners and entrepreneurs able to stay after just three years.
Due to record high levels of migration under the previous government, 1.6 million migrants are set to become eligible for settlement by 2030.
Transitional arrangements for those already in the UK will be set out following a consultation. However, the intention is that anyone yet to be granted settlement would be subject to the contribution-based model once the new rules are in force.
The reforms will build a fairer immigration system for British people, while doing the right thing by migrants who have made their life here and contributed to the UK’s economy and public services.
Share
Updated at 08.11 EST
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander rules out ‘national pay-per-mile’ scheme for electric vehicles in budget
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, has said the government will not be introducing “a national pay-per-mile scheme” for the drivers of electric vehicles (EVs).
Earlier this month the Daily Telegraph reported that a pay-per-mile scheme for EVs would be introduced in the budget. The paper said the scheme would come in from 2028 and that it would cost the average EV driver £250 a year.
At the time the government did not confirm the story. But it did not deny it either, and it issued a statement saying that it wanted a “fairer” scheme that would compensate for the fact that fuel duty, the main tax for drivers, is only paid by people with petrol or diesel cars.
Today Alexander ruled out a pay-per-mile scheme for EVs – at least on a national level.
During transport questions in the Commons, the Conservative MP Charlie Dewhirst asked Alexander if she agreed that “a pay-per-mile charge for motorists in next week’s budget would disproportionately impact rural constituencies”.
Alexander replied:
There are no proposals to introduce a national pay-per-mile scheme. This government is firmly on the side of drivers.
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MoJ to remove right to trial by jury for thousands of cases in controversial overhaul
Criminals will be stopped from “gaming the system” by choosing trial by jury in order to increase the chances of proceedings collapsing, Sarah Sackman, the courts minister, had told the Guardian. Jessica Elgot has the story.
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No 10 says ‘only Ukrainian people can determine their future’ after US and Russia draft capitulation peace plan
Downing Street has said that it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide their own future.
A No 10 spokesperson made this point in response to reports that the US and Russia have drawn up a peace plan that would involve Ukraine having to cede territory and limit the size of its army.
Asked about the report, a spokesperson said:
We share President Trump’s desire to bring this barbaric war to an end.
Russia could do this tomorrow by withdrawing its forces and ending its illegal invasion, but instead [Vladimir] Putin continues to send a barrage of missiles and drones into Ukraine, destroying the lives of innocent Ukrainians, including children and the elderly.
We welcome all efforts that seek to secure a just and lasting peace for Ukraine.
We have been repeatedly clear that only the Ukrainian people can determine their future.
In the meantime, we will continue our support for Ukraine and help ensure that they have the military equipment and resources they need to defend themselves from such continued aggression while sustaining economic pressure on people to bear down on the revenues that are funding the war.
Jakub Krupa has more on this story on his Europe live blog.
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