The UK government will only grant settled status rights to working migrants under radical plans drawn up by Labour’s Shabana Mahmood.
In a speech at the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Mahmood will tell an audience of activists that the government will tighten its indefinite leave to remain rights, which allow migrants to gain settled status in the UK and broader access to UK public services.
A proposed change will make migrants have to pay national insurance, claim no benefits and have a clean criminal record before they can indefinite leave to remain.
The home secretary is set to tell members that she will draw up policies they “won’t always like” but that she was determined to take a tougher stance on immigration, which is the one of the top voter concerns according to City AM/Freshwater Strategy polls.
Mahmood will also argue that her crackdown on illegal migration and tougher rules for legal migration are key to maintaining an “open, generous, tolerant” country.
Labour takes on Reform UK
Her comments come as Reform UK pledged to abolish indefinite leave to remain rights for migrants in a radical policy agenda on legal migration.
Its proposals would see migrants have to re-apply for worker visas every five years and only gain British citizenship if they were prepared to renounce others.
There are some doubts over whether Reform will stick to their pledges, with its leader Nigel Farage appearing to row back on some of the policy announcements made last week in subsequent interviews.
Mahmood is expected to tell conference members that Labour were taking a tougher stance on migration because things were “spinning out of control” and that “patriotism” had turned into “something more like ethno-nationalism”.
She is also set to say she was a “tough Labour Home Secretary, fighting for a vision of this country that is distinctly our own”.
Changes to the immigration system were teased in its white paper, with the waiting period for gaining settled status set to double from five years to ten years.
The white paper also set out plans to strengthen English-speaking standards and raise the salary threshold to more than £41,000 for the skilled worker visa.
Labour officials argue that their proposals mark a clear dividing line from Reform’s more extreme policies.
Mahmood will also use her speech to state that retailers will be given protection from shoplifters in the coming months in a “Winter of Action”.
The Home Office is set to partner up with local businesses across the UK to stop thieves as part of an effort to reduce crime.
