Foreign workers in the UK will need twice as long to quality for permanent residency, Labour announced on Monday, and migrants will be need to pass a “series of new tests” to prove they can be good citizens.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Monday that people would have to earn the right to claim indefinite leave to remain, which would give them access to certain welfare benefits, the ability to work in the country and a path to citizenship.
They also will have to wait 10 years, instead of five, to apply to stay long-term and must meet a set of conditions, from making national insurance contributions to learning English to “a high standard” and volunteering for local charities.
“Because the truth is, across this country, people feel like things are spinning out of control,” she said at Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool. “When they hear of widespread illegal working, under-cutting British workers, they feel the system is rigged.”
The huge rise in legal migration under the last Conservative government, combined with record numbers of people crossing the English Channel in small boats, has propelled migration to the top of the political agenda. Reform UK earlier this month announced it would get rid of the ILR status, and instead make workers apply for a five-year renewable visa.
The Labour government is under pressure to respond as it finds itself outflanked by Nigel Farage’s Reform in the polls. The policy shift on the wait time for permanent residency was set out in a White Paper in May by her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, who’s now foreign secretary.
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