Mahmood unveils earned settlement, doubling default wait to ten years
Shabana Mahmood set out rules ending near-automatic settlement after five years. The default qualifying period rises to ten years; the highest earners may settle within three, while those earning over £50,271 and some public servants, including doctors, nurses and teachers, keep five. Those who breached immigration rules face at least twenty.
The Home Secretary granted migrant care workers a reprieve from the original proposal to triple their wait to fifteen years, but the regime will still apply to those already in the queue. Chris Philp accused her of having been “forced to surrender to Angela Rayner and the open-borders Labour left”. Immigration remains the Conservatives’ and Reform’s strongest ground: Ipsos finds Reform leads on asylum and immigration by 28% to Labour’s 14%, even as Labour leads overall voting intention by eight points.