Britain is set to unveil the biggest overhaul of its settlement rules in years on Monday, as Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood presents plans to make permanent residency something migrants must earn over a decade rather than claim after five years.
Under current rules, most migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years in Britain, a status that also opens the door to some welfare benefits. Mahmood’s proposal would replace that with an “earned settlement” system, making 10 years the standard route to permanent residency and requiring some lower-paid workers, including care workers, to wait up to 15 years.
The reforms are the Labour government’s latest attempt to tighten the immigration system after arrivals surged following Britain’s departure from the European Union, when post-Brexit policies brought large numbers of healthcare workers and students from around the world. Ministers argue the changes are needed because around 350,000 lower-skilled workers and their dependants who arrived after Brexit are expected to become eligible for settlement in the coming years.
The politics behind the move are plain. Despite a slide in the opinion polls since the governing Labour Party elected Andy Burnham as prime minister, Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK party has been a major force pushing for stricter migration controls, and the government has been under sustained pressure to show it can bring numbers down.
Junior business minister Chris McDonald, speaking before Mahmood’s announcement, said immigration levels had become unsustainable under the previous Conservative-led government. “The plan around immigration is about controlling borders, but it’s also about ensuring that we invest in the young people in our country, so that they can get these jobs, so we don’t have to bring people in from overseas too,” he told Sky News.
Burnham last week backed the principle that settlement should be “a right to be earned”, while also routinely praising foreign care workers — a nod to the sector most exposed to the change. Owners of UK care homes, unions and some Labour lawmakers have warned that the care system will struggle to operate if international workers are deterred from coming to Britain.
Media reports have suggested Mahmood could soften some elements of the original proposals, potentially exempting care workers already in Britain or offering them a quicker route to settlement. Those reports remain unconfirmed ahead of Monday’s formal announcement, and the final detail may differ from what has been trailed.
The backdrop, however, is a migration system already cooling sharply. Net migration in Britain almost halved last year to 171,000, from 331,000 a year earlier, extending a steep decline from a record 944,000 in 2023. A cross-party parliamentary committee warned last year that the government did not have a full understanding of how skilled worker visas were affecting different sectors of the economy — a gap Monday’s reforms will be judged against.
Sources: Reuters, “UK to unveil migrant settlement overhaul after months of debate”, 2 November 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-unveil-migrant-settlement-overhaul-after-months-debate-2026-11-02/
