More than 100 Labour Party members of parliament have urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government to rethink changes to the UK’s immigration system, underscoring the scale of opposition confronting him from within his own ranks.
They sent the private letter, seen by Bloomberg, to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Wednesday afternoon. That came before a speech she plans to deliver Thursday intended to convince her colleagues that the reforms — which will make it harder for many low earners to gain residency and citizenship, but will ease the path for those with high-paying jobs — should go forward.
At an event hosted by the Institute for Public Policy and Research, Mahmood will say on Thursday that “restoring order and control at our border is not a betrayal of Labour values, it is an embodiment of them,” according to her prepared remarks.
But Wednesday’s letter signals that a group of MPs, making up around a quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party, are unlikely to support the reforms, setting up Starmer’s government for yet another bruising internal rebellion.
(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)
Mahmood, whose parents immigrated from Pakistan, was appointed as home secretary in September, vowing to tighten the nation’s borders after months of Labour being beaten in the polls by the anti-immigrant party Reform UK.
Net migration to the UK surged to more than 900,000 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson loosened work restrictions to fill vacancies in the labor market. The ballooning numbers prompted worries about the strain on public services such as housing and education. Those fears led to protests that occasionally turned violent.
Though restrictions established under the latter years of the Conservative government helped to bring net migration down to 204,000 in the 12 months through June, Mahmood wants to push further. She’s also trying to deter undocumented migrants arriving across the English Channel on dangerous small boats. These numbers have stayed persistently high.
Key among her changes is a proposal to double the baseline time a migrant has been in the country before they can claim residency, from five years to 10. Visa-holders earning more than £125,000 ($167,110) would be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain, or ILR, after three years, meaning they become eligible for a wider range of welfare benefits and can work with no restrictions.
Yet low-paid care workers allowed in on Health and Care visas — a program expanded after the pandemic in 2022 — would have to wait at least 15 years to apply for ILR. These changes would affect people already in the country, meaning years’ more waiting for migrants just weeks away from getting residency.
A separate public letter, sent to Mahmood last month and signed by more than 30 Labour lawmakers largely aligned with the left of the party, called the policy revisions “deeply unfair.” But Wednesday’s letter is likely to trigger larger concerns for the home secretary, as its private nature meant it attracted the signatures of more centrist MPs who usually side with the government.
As well as railing against the retroactive element of Mahmood’s reforms, the letter also criticizes the government’s decision to impose a baseline 20-year timeline for refugees to be able to claim ILR. Refugee status will also be reviewed every 30 months, and if the Home Office deems that the person’s home country is safe, they may be sent back.
MPs also argue that the UK may be damaging its own economic competitiveness by making it harder for employers to attract and retain talent in industries that already have a skills shortage.
While some of Mahmood’s changes can be brought about through modifications to the UK’s immigration rules, which do not need to be put before a parliamentary vote, others — such as the adjustments to refugee status — will require a so-called statutory instrument to enforce them, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The signatories to Wednesday’s letter believe they may be able to use parliamentary procedure to force a vote on some elements of the reforms, which would prove embarrassing for Starmer if a significant proportion of his own party rebelled.
“You don’t win back public confidence in the asylum system by threatening to forcibly remove refugees who have lived here lawfully for 15 or 20 years,” said Tony Vaughan, one of its authors, speaking to Bloomberg.
The prime minister is already reeling from the loss of several key advisers, and his authority has been weakened after he was pushed into a number of damaging U-turns by revolts from within Labour.
But Mahmood will argue that a perceived “loss of control” on the UK’s borders “breeds fear — and when fearful, people turn inwards.”
“Their vision of this country narrows,” she is expected to say on Thursday. “Their patriotism turns into something smaller, something darker, an ethno-nationalism emerges.”
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said in a news conference Wednesday that he agreed with many of the changes Mahmood was trying to bring in. His party has proposed abolishing ILR altogether.
They sent the private letter, seen by Bloomberg, to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Wednesday afternoon. That came before a speech she plans to deliver Thursday intended to convince her colleagues that the reforms — which will make it harder for many low earners to gain residency and citizenship, but will ease the path for those with high-paying jobs — should go forward.
At an event hosted by the Institute for Public Policy and Research, Mahmood will say on Thursday that “restoring order and control at our border is not a betrayal of Labour values, it is an embodiment of them,” according to her prepared remarks.
But Wednesday’s letter signals that a group of MPs, making up around a quarter of the Parliamentary Labour Party, are unlikely to support the reforms, setting up Starmer’s government for yet another bruising internal rebellion.
(Join our ETNRI WhatsApp channel for all the latest updates)
Mahmood, whose parents immigrated from Pakistan, was appointed as home secretary in September, vowing to tighten the nation’s borders after months of Labour being beaten in the polls by the anti-immigrant party Reform UK.
Net migration to the UK surged to more than 900,000 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson loosened work restrictions to fill vacancies in the labor market. The ballooning numbers prompted worries about the strain on public services such as housing and education. Those fears led to protests that occasionally turned violent.
Though restrictions established under the latter years of the Conservative government helped to bring net migration down to 204,000 in the 12 months through June, Mahmood wants to push further. She’s also trying to deter undocumented migrants arriving across the English Channel on dangerous small boats. These numbers have stayed persistently high.
Key among her changes is a proposal to double the baseline time a migrant has been in the country before they can claim residency, from five years to 10. Visa-holders earning more than £125,000 ($167,110) would be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain, or ILR, after three years, meaning they become eligible for a wider range of welfare benefits and can work with no restrictions.
Yet low-paid care workers allowed in on Health and Care visas — a program expanded after the pandemic in 2022 — would have to wait at least 15 years to apply for ILR. These changes would affect people already in the country, meaning years’ more waiting for migrants just weeks away from getting residency.
A separate public letter, sent to Mahmood last month and signed by more than 30 Labour lawmakers largely aligned with the left of the party, called the policy revisions “deeply unfair.” But Wednesday’s letter is likely to trigger larger concerns for the home secretary, as its private nature meant it attracted the signatures of more centrist MPs who usually side with the government.
As well as railing against the retroactive element of Mahmood’s reforms, the letter also criticizes the government’s decision to impose a baseline 20-year timeline for refugees to be able to claim ILR. Refugee status will also be reviewed every 30 months, and if the Home Office deems that the person’s home country is safe, they may be sent back.
MPs also argue that the UK may be damaging its own economic competitiveness by making it harder for employers to attract and retain talent in industries that already have a skills shortage.
While some of Mahmood’s changes can be brought about through modifications to the UK’s immigration rules, which do not need to be put before a parliamentary vote, others — such as the adjustments to refugee status — will require a so-called statutory instrument to enforce them, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The signatories to Wednesday’s letter believe they may be able to use parliamentary procedure to force a vote on some elements of the reforms, which would prove embarrassing for Starmer if a significant proportion of his own party rebelled.
“You don’t win back public confidence in the asylum system by threatening to forcibly remove refugees who have lived here lawfully for 15 or 20 years,” said Tony Vaughan, one of its authors, speaking to Bloomberg.
The prime minister is already reeling from the loss of several key advisers, and his authority has been weakened after he was pushed into a number of damaging U-turns by revolts from within Labour.
But Mahmood will argue that a perceived “loss of control” on the UK’s borders “breeds fear — and when fearful, people turn inwards.”
“Their vision of this country narrows,” she is expected to say on Thursday. “Their patriotism turns into something smaller, something darker, an ethno-nationalism emerges.”
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, said in a news conference Wednesday that he agreed with many of the changes Mahmood was trying to bring in. His party has proposed abolishing ILR altogether.
