Reforms to the UK’s migration system will mean skilled professionals, such as doctors and entrepreneurs, will have to wait shorter times to be allowed to remain in the country indefinitely.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood made the announcement as part of what she called “the most significant reforms to migration” by legal routes and claiming asylum “in a generation”.
Ms Mahmood has signalled she wants to roll back the levels of migration that took place under former prime minister Boris Johnson.
In what has become known as the 'Boriswave', 2.6 million migrants were given visas to come to the UK between 2021 and 2024, many to work in sectors such as health care.
About 1.6 million were set to qualify for indefinite leave to remain by 2030, which had increasingly concerned ministers due to the strain it would place on public services and wider society.
In a speech to the left-wing Institute for Public Policy Research, Ms Mahmood said that Britain “has experienced levels of migration it had previously seen across four decades”.
The Home Secretary said the “scandal” of lowering the skills requirements for those who arrived on the health and social care visas mean that over the next five years, some 350,000 low skilled workers and their dependents will qualify for settlement.
Ms Mahmood said that according to the government’s Migration Advisory Committee, the lifetime cost to the taxpayer when these migrants gain access to welfare and social housing after securing indefinite leave to remain will be £10 billion.
“We must be honest about the scale of this. We have never in the history of this country, had so much low skilled migration in so little time,” she said.
The changes she announced include the qualifying period for settlement for those migrants moving from five years to 10. In order to qualify they will need a clean criminal record, no debt to the taxpayer, a history of being in work and paying taxes, and English language skills at A-level standard.
But the government is proposing that those earning more than £125,140 and entrepreneurs who are on global talent or innovator visas will be able to apply for fast-tracked settlement after three years.
Doctors and nurses working in the NHS and other foreign workers earning above £50,270 will be able to apply after five years.
“I want people to put down roots in this country and to contribute to our national life, but it is essential that the privilege of living in this country forever is earned and not automatic,” said Ms Mahmood.
"We have proposed that some will earn settlement at or earlier than five years, including public servants like doctors and nurses,the and those who are contributing the most to the nation's finances."
The Labour government is facing rising anger among voters about what they see as the broken migration system, which has seen a surge in support for the right-wing populist Reform party, led by Nigel Farage. The party has pledged to deport 600,000 illegal immigrants from the UK.
In the latest attempt to deal with asylum seekers whose claims have failed but remain in the UK, Ms Mahmood said a small number of failed asylum seekers will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain.
The Home Secretary said the pilot scheme would mirror reforms introduced in Denmark, where she said there had been “great success”.
