Overview
- Reports on Wednesday say Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood proposed raising the qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to ten years and applying that change to migrants who arrived since 2021.
- More than 100 Labour MPs, including Angela Rayner, have publicly opposed retrospective changes and have applied pressure on incoming prime minister Andy Burnham to take a softer approach.
- The Times reports negotiators are considering a compromise that would retain the five‑year pathway for the roughly 1.6 million 'Boriswave' arrivals while delaying or limiting their access to certain welfare benefits.
- Reform UK has released costings that put the lifetime bill at about £30 billion and roughly £1,100 per household, but those figures come from partisan analysis and are not independently verified.
- Under current rules ILR confers permanent residency and access to public funds, the NHS and the state pension so any change could leave newly arrived workers and their families waiting to claim benefits and affect local services.