Mahmood declines to cost settlement climbdown on care workers
The home secretary has refused to say how much scrapping longer settlement waits for foreign care workers already in the UK will cost; the Home Office had suggested the original plan could save £10bn. Shabana Mahmood insisted the state would still save “billions”. Shadow home secretary Chris Philp called it “a U-turn”; the morning papers broadly agree.
More than 300,000 care workers and adult dependants will be exempt from the extended wait, Channel 4 News reports, though overseas prison officers were left out and could face ten years. Concessions on care workers and retrospection followed pressure from Labour MPs and Angela Rayner, who had called the plans “un-British” before rejoining the Cabinet under Andy Burnham. Nigel Farage branded the move “the beginning of the capitulation”. Ms Mahmood says the full cost will appear in a future impact assessment.