Lord Khan urges Shabana Mahmood to water down immigration reforms

Lord Khan of Tooting has urged Shabana Mahmood to show compassion as political pressure intensifies over proposed overhauls to the UK immigration system. Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, according to Aol, Lord Khan said he had raised his opposition to indefinite leave to remain reforms during the Government's consultation. He stated that while the Home Secretary was right to have open conversations and control borders, immigration policy needed compassion and he was not in favour of changing rules retrospectively. The intervention highlights deep fractures within the administration over plans to significantly lengthen the residency requirement for permanent residency.

At the center of the dispute are Home Office proposals to alter indefinite leave to remain rules. Under current settings, foreign nationals generally qualify for settled status after five years following a period sparked by relaxation of visa rules under Boris Johnson, which saw millions arrive between 2021 and 2024. The revised framework would establish a default 10-year qualifying period, scaling upward depending on earnings, skills, and welfare history. Highly paid professionals or public sector teachers, doctors, and nurses could still qualify in five years, while top earners could achieve settlement in three years. Conversely, lower-skilled workers face a 15-year wait, those granted asylum face 20 years without adjustments, and individuals entering the country illegally would wait 30 years.

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Critically, the plans threaten to apply retrospectively to migrants who arrived under previous frameworks. According to reporting by Inews, the policy could affect up to 1.6 million people forecast to become eligible for settlement between 2026 and 2030. The retroactive application has triggered fierce resistance across political lines, with critics arguing it alters the rules halfway through peoples' lives and penalizes foreign care workers who moved to Britain expecting a five-year pathway.

The Cabinet divide has grown increasingly public. Housing Secretary Angela Rayner previously criticized the measures on the eve of the party conference, describing the retrospective shift as changing the goalposts for foreign care staff and branding the rules unfair and un-British. Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh repeatedly avoided backing the 15-year waiting period during broadcast interviews on Sky News, though she later affirmed general support for overall reforms according to The Guardian, after earlier constituency website posts warned that prolonged waits threaten social cohesion. The Prime Minister also refused in a broadcast interview to say he supported the proposals as currently laid out, pointing instead to the context of the early 2020s arrival numbers.

Tensions reached a new height when government talks with the Labour-affiliated union Unison broke down after Mahmood refused to allow a migrant care worker to attend the meeting, as reported by iNews. This came amid broader industry warnings from adult social care directors facing severe funding deficits and staffing pressures. Figures like Andy Burnham have argued that exempting care workers is essential, though Downing Street allies have insisted the Home Secretary is holding the line. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp called on Mahmood to resign if she cannot pass her reforms through Parliament, promising Conservative backing if she refuses to water them down.

Potential concessions under review include fast-track avenues for specific sectors, transitional arrangements for families and older residents, or exempting existing migrants from the timeline while placing temporary restrictions on post-settlement benefits. Figures such as Lord Blunkett have suggested robust avenues for speeding up settlement for those showing independence, while others like Lord Dubs and Baroness Lister have voiced deep concern over the retrospective impact.

What happens next depends on how the Home Office addresses the public feedback. Ministers are currently reviewing more than 200,000 consultation responses, with a definitive policy package expected to be announced in due course as the Government attempts to navigate both internal backbench rebellions and external opposition demands.