LONDON.- Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood defended her revised migration reform package on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, against accusations of a U-turn, after watering down plans that would have made foreign care workers wait up to 15 years for permanent settlement, while veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott warned that the reforms risk creating another Windrush scandal. Under the revised "Earned Settlement" plans, foreign care workers who meet their visa conditions and earn at least £25,000 a year will now only have to wait five years, instead of the 15 years originally proposed for lower-qualified workers who arrived on health and social care visas during the post-2022 "Boriswave."
Mahmood insisted the package will still tackle high net migration, telling the BBC that around 500,000 people who were due to settle after five years will not now do so. Under the final model, the right to settled status will no longer be automatic: the standard route doubles from five to 10 years, workers earning more than £50,271 a year and some public service workers, including doctors, nurses and teachers, can settle after five years, and the highest earners, on at least £125,141 a year, can settle within three years. Refugees who arrived through safe and legal routes can settle after five years, but most others will wait 20 years, rising to 30 years for those who arrived by small boat and do not enter work or study.
Abbott's Windrush warning and the missing £10 billion
Diane Abbott, the Mother of the House as the longest continuously serving female MP, led London MPs in warning Mahmood that the changes "turn upside down" the residency rights of many people who came to Britain legally to work, pointing to the Windrush Lessons Learned Review and the 2018 scandal in which British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in Britain. Mahmood replied that she does not accept that characterization of the changes. Conservative shadow Chris Philp accused her of a U-turn and claimed the softened plan would cost the taxpayer £10 billion, while Housing Secretary Angela Rayner had publicly attacked the prospect of backdating the plans earlier this year.
Mahmood also conceded on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday that the savings from the overhaul will fall short of the £10 billion estimated under her original plans, saying only that "there will be savings in the billions," with a full impact assessment promised when the immigration rules are laid before Parliament. She said net migration is down 82% and that legal immigration "has been too high," after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday it was "difficult to say" whether it was too high or too low. The softened care-worker terms followed intense lobbying from health unions and Labour's left wing and a public consultation that received more than 202,000 responses; Mahmood also confirmed that around 1,800 exploitative employers have had their licences revoked. The rules will be laid before Parliament in December and take effect in 2027.
Read more on The Wire Post: Shabana Mahmood Unveils Final Migrant Settlement Overhaul: 10-Year Wait for Most, Care Workers Already in Britain Spared the 15-Year Delay and Shabana Mahmood to Unveil Earned Settlement Plan Making 10 Years the Standard Route to Permanent Life in Britain.
Fuentes: PA vía Bury Times y The Oldham Times, BBC Radio 4 Today y The Observer, 3 de noviembre de 2026.