Home secretary accused of persisting with ‘unfair’ immigration crackdown despite care worker exemption

Care workers will be exempt from new stringent rules that requires foreign workers to wait 10 years for permanent settlement in Britain.

The plans, first proposed in November, will double the qualifying period for settlement for most migrants from five to 10 years.

But the home secretary has now watered down the controversial crackdown following backlash from senior Labour figures.

She announced on Monday that foreign care workers who earn at least £25,000 a year will have to wait five years for permanent settlement, backtracking on her plans to make them wait 15 years.

Those who arrive on a small boat will have to wait 20 years for settlement, rising to 30 years if they do not enter work or study, in what the government says is a bid to encourage people to come to the UK on safe and legal routes.

The announcement follows months of behind-the-scenes wrangling after senior Labour figures spoke out against the crackdown.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the move would create a system that was “fair” as she warned that the right to settle in the UK must be “earned”.

She said care workers who came to the UK in the wake of the pandemic can settle after 5 years – if they have met visa conditions and earned at least £25,000 a year.

The initial plans came under heavy criticism from Labour MPs who are now ministers in Burnham’s government. Angela Rayner called retrospective changes “un-British” before she rejoined the cabinet this summer.

Miatta Fahnbulleh, the energy secretary, said in September they would have been “tough” for her own family, who came to the UK as refugees.

Ms Mahmood's initial proposal would have doubled the qualifying period for settlement for most migrants from five to 10 years, and potentially tripled it to 15 for care workers.

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