Kemi Badenoch has vowed that a future Conservative government could remove indefinite leave to remain from migrants granted the status under Labour’s revised immigration rules if they fail to make a “net contribution” to Britain.
The Conservative leader said foreign workers receiving settled status would not be guaranteed access to benefits, and promised to review their position if they were judged to be making the country poorer.
“If someone arrives in this country under those previous rules and they’re granted ILR by the Labour government, if they’re not a net contributor to our country we will review and stop their indefinite leave to remain,” she said in a social media video.
Ms Badenoch accused Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of abandoning an earlier pledge to make low-paid migrants wait longer before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain, claiming Labour had “given up” because it was “addicted to welfare”.
Ms Mahmood announced on Monday that almost 300,000 foreign care workers would be exempt from the proposed crackdown. Under the original plan, migrants would have faced longer waits for settlement.
Concessions made to Labour MPs opposed to the proposals mean that, of the 1.9 million foreign nationals expected to become eligible for settlement by 2030, about 500,000 will face a longer wait.
Ms Badenoch said: “Conservatives believe that you should not get permanent settlement or access to benefits as a foreign national if you are not a net contributor.
“We need people who are going to contribute to our country, not make us poorer.”
She said the Conservative approach would include a minimum 10-year qualifying period for legal migrants seeking indefinite leave to remain, followed by a further five years before they could apply for British citizenship.
She also said non-citizens would not receive benefits or social housing, while calling for a higher salary threshold and an annual cap on immigration. Further details of how “net contributors” would be defined are expected from the Conservatives.
The intervention came as Ms Mahmood faced questions over the financial impact of the revised policy. In March, she said allowing foreign care workers who arrived between 2022 and 2024 to secure indefinite leave to remain could carry a lifetime cost to taxpayers of £10 billion.
She declined to put a figure on the cost of the watered-down measures, but said an impact assessment would be published when the immigration rules were laid before Parliament.
“There will be savings in the billions but, of course, allowing people to settle at five years, given the unique contribution of care workers in particular, obviously that does have an impact on the numbers,” Ms Mahmood told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Asked whether her reputation had been damaged after being overruled by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the Home Secretary did not answer directly. She insisted the measures had always been subject to consultation and still represented a “significant change”.
