Migrants must be UK citizens before getting benefits, says Mahmood

People who migrate to the UK will be eligible for benefits and social housing only when they become British citizens, and those who arrive by small boat could wait up to 30 years for residency, under new plans outlined by Shabana Mahmood.

- Rajeev Syal

The plans could result in migrants only becoming eligible for benefits and social housing if they first become British citizens, rather than upon being granted settlement, as is currently the case.

More than 600,000 overseas health workers and their families who arrived in the UK as part of the so-called "Boriswave" could wait up to 25 years to apply to settle if they have claimed benefits, under the plans.

The measures are part of a radical set of rewritten rules for those who seek to apply to settle in the UK, and comes days after the release of proposed changes to the asylum system.

It also comes as Mahmood is touted as a possible future Labour leader by "Blue Labour" MPs and as the party comes under pressure from Nigel Farage's Reform UK in the polls.

The proposals have prompted concern from NGOs who say they will leave people in limbo.

Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: "These proposals would risk trapping people who have fled war and persecution in three decades of instability and stress at the very moment they need certainty to rebuild their lives.