Just a quarter of arrivals will have to wait longer for leave to remain, Mahmood reveals in her watered-down plans

Published: 19:16 EDT, 2 November 2026 | Updated: 21:16 EDT, 2 November 2026 Shabana Mahmood's original plans to restrict foreign nationals' ability to win permanent rights in Britain have been significantly watered down.A plan for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) published yesterday means most foreign care workers will, as they currently do, have to live in Britain for just five years to qualify.This means these workers would become eligible for welfare, NHS healthcare and social housing.Despite the Home Secretary's extensive warnings about the consequences of failing to act, she has been forced to bow to the will of Labour's Left-wing.When she published her original plans, Ms Mahmood indicated that most of the 1.6 million migrants due to qualify for ILR by 2030 would be required to complete longer qualification periods. But in yesterday's Home Office document, the number estimated to be becoming eligible for ILR in the same period has risen to 1.9 million.And, crucially, the watered-down changes mean that only about a quarter of those – an estimated 500,000 – will end up waiting more than five years.Before yesterday's capitulation, Ms Mahmood had spoken of the dangers of taking the precise course upon which she has now embarked.In a speech in March, she warned that high levels of immigration in the years after the Covid pandemic had been 'destabilising' to Britain. Shabana Mahmood's original plans to restrict foreign nationals' ability to win permanent rights in Britain have been significantly watered downShe particularly highlighted the hundreds of thousands who came here on low-skilled foreign care worker visas.The Home Secretary also said in her March address that the status quo would carry a lifetime cost to the taxpayer of £10billion.She said: 'It would mean ever longer waits for the 1.3 million people in this country on the social housing list, and yet more pressure placed upon our National Health Service.' Last November, Ms Mahmood published a blueprint for reforming ILR which, among a wide range of changes, would have seen foreign care workers wait 15 or 20 years rather than just five.There are about 382,000 care workers and their dependants coming up for settlement by 2030 – and under Labour's new package 290,000 of them will stay on a five-year pathway to ILR.This will apply to those who got their visa before May last year and have earned the minimum salary of £25,000 a year.The remainder – about 100,000 care workers and their dependants – will be given a 'second opportunity' to meet the requirements. They will be handed a further five-year visa, after which they will be able to re-apply for ILR.Those in the highest bracket – earning at least £125,141 a year – will be able to settle within three years, while those earning more than £50,271 and some public service workers, including doctors and teachers, will be able to settle after five years.Other U-turns include allowing dependants under 25 to win ILR alongside the main applicant in their household – usually a parent.Previously, they would have been required to meet the criteria themselves, such as minimum income levels and English language skills.The measures will be introduced in phases from early next year.READ MORE: Mahmood's '£10billion migrant climbdown': Home Secretary abandons tougher residency rules after backbench revolt READ MORE: Four in five people who took the Home Office's immigration poll were NOT British, figures show QUENTIN LETTS: Shabana Mahmood didn't so much deliver her speech as pebble-dash it at her audience