Overview
- A Labour minister, Chris Bryant, said he did not know the policy specifics and refused to commit to backing Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to lengthen the wait for indefinite leave to remain.
- The Immigration and Asylum Bill is set for Second Reading in the Commons and would end permanent refugee status by introducing asylum status reviews every 30 months.
- Officials are reported to be drawing up a compromise to keep a five-year route to ILR for many people already in the UK while restricting access to some benefits for several years, a plan said to affect about 1.6 million migrants.
- The Home Office is preparing targeted legal changes to close a loophole in a 1971 law so it can seek to deport Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed, with ministers considering fast-tracked action to do so.
- Backbench anger focuses on retrospective application of the ILR change because settlement status gives access to welfare and housing support, a point that has heightened political risk for ministers as Andy Burnham’s incoming premiership leaves the department’s future uncertain.