Labour moves to water down immigration reforms after MP backlash

Keir Starmer has signalled that the government is preparing to water down its immigration reforms following a backlash from Labour MPs including Angela Rayner, the former deputy leader.

The prime minister told The Observer that “no decision” had been made over the plan to make it harder for migrants already in the UK to settle permanently. “I think it’s important to recognise we’re only at the end of the consultation,” he said. “We must always remember that people do want fair rules. They want clear rules but they also want compassionate and fair rules, and certainly in relation to some of the arguments that have been made, for example by social workers about the impact on them, they make a powerful case, in my view.”

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, wants to double, to 10 years, the time it takes for most migrant workers to qualify for permanent residence. She is proposing that changes to the rules on acquiring indefinite leave to remain – which gives people the right to live, work and study in the UK for as long as they wish – should apply to people who are already in the country, although not those who have been granted settled status.

Rayner warned this month that the plans were “un-British” and a breach of trust; there were people who now “fear for their future” because the government was “moving the goalpost”.

It comes as Labour’s immigration rebels plan to “front load” pressure on the government, which is expected to make a final decision in the autumn, partly to avoid more flashpoints before the local elections in early May.

More than 100 Labour MPs have signed a private letter to the home secretary, saying that the proposals are not acceptable. They have warned that the changes could worsen the UK’s skills shortages, particularly in the social care sector.

The British Association of Social Workers has written to Mahmood, seeking clarification about whether social workers will be included in the list of public service professionals who will be eligible for a five-year reduction in the qualifying period for settled status.

Amid public and private backlash, one Labour MP told The Observer that the government was now “in listening mode”. At a recent meeting with Black and Asian MPs and peers, Starmer came “under pressure” on the issue, according to some of those present.

Backbenchers and ministers believe the argument against stripping people of indefinite leave to remain retrospectively is now “won”, but conversations were taking place on other issues such as the length of settlement period, reduced time for immigrants who make a positive contribution and transitional support.

“The message from No 10 seems to be quite different to what it was, and even from the Home Office we have seen a shift,” said another MP.

Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell told The Observer last month that the proposals on immigration were “a real concern to our ethnic minorities” and “came up a lot in the [Gorton and Denton] byelection”, where Labour was pushed into third place behind the Greens and Reform. The party is heading for a drubbing at the local, Scottish and Welsh elections in May.

Starmer said Labour needed to make the argument that it had “progressive answers” to the challenges facing the country. “Very few people would see Nigel Farage or Zack Polanski as prime minister. I believe that there are a very large number of people in the middle of politics, which is where politics is always won from, who want to know that there is a government that has progressive answers to the challenges in their lives,” he said.

“We need to better connect with that group of people, some of whom have voted Reform and have voted Green. We need to make our case more powerfully to them, give them a better account of what we’ve done.”

Photograph by Stefan Rousseau/PA