Minister Declines to Back Fifteen-Year Wait for Settlement
The energy secretary repeatedly declined in a broadcast interview this morning to say she supports extending the wait for permanent residency from five years to fifteen, a proposal of the home secretary’s now out for consultation. Asked directly, she said: “Don’t put words in my mouth.” Dozens of Labour backbenchers oppose the plan.
Miatta Fahnbulleh’s formulation was careful rather than hostile. She said reform must rest on “the principle of compassion, contribution”, that the home secretary “has been consulting on this” and would decide, and — speaking, as she noted, “as someone that came to this country as a refugee” — that nobody could look at the system “and not believe that it’s broken”. She also said she backed Shabana Mahmood “100%” in “everything she is trying to do”, which is support for a colleague rather than for a policy. A post on her own constituency website warning that prolonging the wait for settlement could “prolong the process of building cohesion” was subsequently removed. The proposal would raise the qualifying period to fifteen years and apply it retrospectively to 2021. Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, has criticised it publicly and then played down talk of a rift. The prime minister is said to be weighing an exemption for care work, which the Home Office resists on the grounds that it would loosen the visa tie and empty the sector.