Thousands of migrants are securing permanent residence in Britain every week as Labour remains divided over plans to tighten the settlement system.
More than 200,000 people have received indefinite leave to remain since ministers first proposed stricter rules last year. The status allows them to stay in the UK for life and potentially access benefits, NHS treatment and social housing.
However, the proposed crackdown remains uncertain after a backlash led by Angela Rayner and trade unions. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has recently suggested that ministers may be forced to soften the measures.
Until then, at least 5,000 people a week who arrived legally on visas and have lived in Britain for five years are reaching the threshold for settlement.
The pace is expected to accelerate in the months ahead, as people who arrived during the record immigration surge that followed the pandemic become eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
Chris Philp, the Shadow Home Secretary, told the Daily Mail that hundreds of predominantly low-paid or unemployed migrants were gaining the right to remain permanently every day.
He said Ms Mahmood was refusing to introduce her own proposed changes, despite acknowledging that reform was necessary to save taxpayers £10 billion.
Mr Philp accused the Home Secretary of delaying the policy because she feared opposition from Angela Rayner and Labour’s left wing, adding that she lacked the resolve to carry out her plans.
More than 200,000 people have received indefinite leave to remain, giving them potential access to lifetime benefits, NHS care and social housing, since ministers proposed tougher restrictions last year
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood delivers a speech on the second day of the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, United Kingdom, on September 28, 2026
He warned that the Government appeared close to abandoning the proposed reforms, which he said would allow hundreds of thousands of low-paid and unemployed migrants to remain in Britain permanently.
Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s spokesman for home affairs, accused Ms Mahmood of giving in to what he called Labour’s “open-borders zealots”.
He said Labour’s internal divisions meant more migrants would secure indefinite leave to remain and unrestricted access to the welfare system, claiming Andy Burnham had failed to control Ms Rayner and Labour backbenchers.
Under the current system, migrants who have lived and worked in the UK for five years can apply for indefinite leave to remain. The status allows them to stay indefinitely, seek benefits and apply for British citizenship after a further year.
Last May, when Yvette Cooper was Home Secretary, the Government proposed an “earned settlement” system. Under the plan, the standard qualifying period would double to 10 years amid warnings that large numbers of migrants were approaching eligibility.
The Government’s Immigration White Paper said the exceptionally high level of net migration between 2019 and 2024 meant that many more people were likely to qualify for settlement and citizenship over the following years.
In November last year, Ms Mahmood said she wanted the tougher requirements to apply retrospectively. Without reform, she warned, 1.6 million people would qualify for settlement between 2026 and 2030.
During a speech this year, she estimated that the group’s “lifetime cost to the taxpayer” would reach £10 billion. She said it included large numbers of low-skilled workers and their dependants.
The proposal triggered an angry response from Labour MPs, who accused ministers of “moving the goalposts” for people already living in the UK.
While out of government, Ms Rayner described the retrospective element as “un-British” and a “breach of trust”. Despite returning to Cabinet collective responsibility, she repeated her opposition as recently as last month.
Britain’s biggest trade union Unison wants care workers to be exempted from the proposed rules, and its general secretary Andrea Egan even claimed: ‘Shabana Mahmood’s proposals have fuelled the far-Right.’
Then the Home Secretary hinted at a climbdown, saying: ‘We will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally and fairness to British citizens.’
Latest official figures show that 199,628 people were granted settlement in the 12 months to June, beginning immediately after the White Paper’s call for action.
If grants have continued at the same rate it would mean another 5,675 settling every week, and well over 200,000 gaining indefinite leave to remain since Ms Mahmood’s detailed plan was announced in November.
The pressure group MigrationWatch UK estimates 225,000 qualified for indefinite leave to remain in the past 11 months.
Chairman Alp Mehmet asked of Andy Burnham: ‘Will you have the courage to back your Home Secretary and extend the ILR qualifying period or will you bottle it and defy public opinion?’
The consultation on the proposal, which received 200,000 responses, closed in February, but the Home Office has not responded. Immigration rules were updated last week with no mention of ILR.
The Home Office said: ‘We are considering responses to our consultation on elements of these reforms.’