Veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott has warned Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that she risks creating another Windrush scandal with her controversial immigration reforms. The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP led London MPs who raised concerns about the proposed changes, accusing the Government's latest plans of “turning upside down” the residency rights of many people who came to Britain legally to work.
Windrush warning
Abbott, the Mother of the House as the longest continuously serving female MP, pointed to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review report. She added that if Mahmood “had read it, she would realise that she's in danger of finding herself in the same position as home secretaries who was in office at the time of the Windrush scandal”.
The Home Secretary replied: “On indefinite leave to remain and what she calls the retrospective nature of the changes, she will know I do not agree with that characterisation of those changes.” The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in Britain.
Revised settlement plans
Mahmood insisted her migration reforms will tackle high net migration, after she watered down plans to make foreign care workers wait up to 15 years for settlement following criticism from senior Labour figures. Under the initial proposals, lower-qualified workers who arrived on health and social care visas during the “Boriswave” from 2022 could have been made to wait 15 years for permanent settlement. Under the revised plans, foreign care workers who meet their visa conditions and earn at least £25,000 a year will now only have to wait five years.
Foreign care workers who do not qualify for the five-year settlement will be able to apply for a new five-year visa, and then seek settlement once that has been completed. Anyone seeking settled status will need a clean criminal record, English spoken to the equivalent of A-level English as a foreign language, must not owe debt to the taxpayer, and must have a record of sustained national insurance contributions.
MPs raise concerns
Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier, for Hackney South and Shoreditch, raised concerns about the availability of English lessons, stressing that “many women in particular are trapped because they do not have access to English”. Liberal Democrat MP Paul Kohler warned against imposing “retrospective changes to the time required to achieve indefinite leave to remain for all those already on pathways to settlement”. Richmond Park Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney raised worries that children could be left without citizenship if they reach adulthood before their parents get leave to remain.
Under the Home Secretary's plans, the right to settled status will no longer be automatic and must be earned, with the default timescale being ten years. The highest earners (earning at least £125,141 a year) will be able to settle within three years, while those earning more than £50,271 and some public service workers, including doctors, nurses and teachers, will be able to settle after five years.
Walthamstow Labour MP Stella Creasy highlighted the economic impact of making people who are working but do not earn more than £50,000 - such as scientists, researchers or skilled technicians - having to wait ten years for settlement. Islington North MP Jeremy Corbyn, a former Labour leader, stressed: “Where is the fairness in prioritising very wealthy people and very high earners over much lower-paid care workers who are obviously doing a valuable job and helping all our communities?”
Political reaction
Earlier, tensions in the Cabinet over the immigration shake-up surfaced when Housing Secretary Angela Rayner publicly attacked the prospect of backdating the plans. The Home Secretary's new plans prompted accusations of a “U-turn” from her Conservative shadow Chris Philp, MP for Croydon South, who also claimed it would cost the taxpayer £10 billion. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage branded the decision “the beginning of the capitulation”.
