Home secretary scraps plan for migrant care workers already in UK to wait 15 years for settlement

Jack Fenwick
Political correspondent

The watering down of these plans comes after months of pressure from some Labour MPs including Angela Rayner.

There were two aspects of the plans that they were most unhappy with.

Rayner had said the retrospective nature of the plans was “un-British” and amounted to changing “the goalposts”.

She and others had also criticised the impact on social care workers, who under the old plans would have had to wait 15 years for settlement.

Image source, House of Commons

The most significant change in the updated plans has come on social care workers – those who came to the UK before May 2025 and earn £25,000 a year will now be able to get settlement after five years.

But the retrospective nature hasn’t shifted – many people who came to the UK expecting to qualify for settlement after five years will now have to wait 10 years.

People inside the Home Office will be keenly looking at how Labour MPs react to that element.

But the early evidence from inside the House of Commons chamber suggests that levels of anger are not that high.

Backbenchers including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Stella Creasy have all raised potential concerns, but all chose to largely pull their rhetorical punches.

Rayner was in the House of Commons earlier and didn’t stick around for the home secretary’s statement, but I’m told we shouldn’t read too much into that.