Labour announces sweeping changes to indefinite leave to remain

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will announce the changes as Labour’s conference in Liverpool (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Indefinite leave to remain will only be granted to people who meet a series of conditions, the Home Secretary has announced, in a major shake-up of the UK’s legal migration system.

Shabana Mahmood’s plan will be unveiled in a speech at Labour’s 2025 conference in Liverpool, exactly a week after Nigel Farage spoke about his own proposing to change the system.

The Reform leader drew attention last Monday for saying he would deport hundreds of thousands of people currently living in the UK legally by scrapping indefinite leave to remain altogether.

In an appearance on Laura Kuenssberg’s BBC show yesterday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described the idea as ‘racist’ and ‘immoral’.

Less than 24 hours later, his government has set out its own plans to reform indefinite leave to remain, which currently is granted to people who have lived and worked in the UK for at least five years.

Mahmood will warn party members that ‘you won’t always like what I do’, but argue she will be a ‘tough Labour Home Secretary, fighting for a vision of this country that is distinctly our own’.

Her proposed changes to the system would mean people could only be granted indefinite leave to remain if they:

Pay National Insurance Do not claim any benefits Have a clean criminal record Learn English to a high standard Volunteer in their community

Labour said the move puts a ‘clear dividing line’ between the government and Reform.

The new changes to the immigration system would further toughen up measures announced in a white paper in May.

They included the doubling of the time needed for people to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, from five to ten years – though this time could be reduced based on the person’s skills or contribution.

Mahmood took over as Home Secretary earlier this month in a reshuffle prompted by the resignation of Angela Rayner from her government roles after a row over her tax affairs.

She replaced Yvette Cooper, who was moved to become Foreign Secretary.

Her first three weeks in the role have been defined by the government’s continuing struggle to contain the small boats crisis in the Channel.

Just days after taking over, Mahmood announced plans to cut the number of visas granted to countries that frustrated efforts to return people with no right to stay in the UK.

In her speech on Monday, she will argue the scale of migration under the Conservatives has left many people in the country with the feeling things are ‘spinning out of control’.

This has left her with the fear that ‘patriotism, a force for good, is turning into something smaller, something more like ethno-nationalism’, she will say.

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