‘Tough’ home secretary set for immigration crackdown

Mahmood to overhaul main route to gaining UK citizenship

- MILLIE COOKE HOLLY BANCROFT

Shabana Mahmood is set to announce a major crackdown on migration through a radical overhaul of the main route for immigrants gaining British citizenship in the UK.

Under tougher measures set to be unveiled by the home secretary, migrants who want to remain in the UK will have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community to be eligible for indefinite leave to remain. They will also have to be working, paying national insurance and not be claiming benefits under the proposed changes.

Ms Mahmood will lay out the plans while billing herself as a “tough home secretary” and admitting that some Labour members “won’t always like what I do”.

But speaking on the second day of Labour’s annual party conference in Liverpool, she will also say she is “fighting for a vision of this country that is distinctly our own”.

Labour’s latest announcement comes just days after Nigel Farage announced plans to abolish indefinite leave to remain, meaning tens of thousands of people who have legally settled in Britain could be at risk of deportation - a policy Sir Keir Starmer branded both “racist” and “immoral” yesterday morning.

As Reform surges in the polls — with the party currently on track to win the most parliamentary seats if an election were held - the government is attempting to persuade voters it can be trusted on migration.

But critics have rounded on Labour’s latest plans, with the Refugee Council accusing the government of “punishing refugees for needing help”.

Meanwhile, Minnie Rahman, CEO of refugee charity Praxis, accused the government of pursuing proposals that would create a “two-tier society” on the “very same day the PM finally distances himself from Reform UK’s policies”.