Andy Burnham considering abandoning one of Shabana Mahmood’s most toxic immigration reforms
Will Burnham shift government policy on migration?
Andy Burnham – the most likely contender to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister – is considering making major changes to one of the government’s flagship immigration reforms. According to reporting by The i Paper, Burnham is looking at ditching part of the home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to extend the length of time migrants would need to live in the UK in order to be granted Indefinite Leave to Remain from five to ten years.
Crucially, Mahmood’s reforms will apply retrospectively. This means that people who are currently in the country would need to wait longer to be given permanent residency than they were expecting when they first came to the UK.
These changes have been fiercely opposed by migrant rights campaigners and from MPs from across the centre and left of British politics.
According to The I Paper, it is the retrospective element of this that Burnham is considering scrapping. The newspaper reports a source in Burnham’s cam as saying “He sees it as a matter of fairness and will not want to impose the changes retrospectively”.
Burnham has previously publicly criticised the plans, saying that they would leave people “in a sense of limbo” and that this would make them “unable to integrate”.
Despite these reports, Burnham has said following the Makerfield by-election that he supported the “broad thrust” of Mahmood’s migration reforms, suggesting any change of direction may be minor. The I Paper also reports another source close to Burnham as saying that he is “yet to make a decision” on the question of Indefinite Leave to Remain.
Burnham is facing pressure from within the Labour Party to make more significant changes to the government’s migration policies.
The Labour MP Fleur Anderson told LFF earlier this month that people would not be forced to wait longer for Indefinite Leave to Remain and called for overseas care workers to be able to get visas.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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