A number of ministers concerned about Shabana Mahmood\u2019s immigration changes are working behind the scenes with backbenchers to secure more exemptions, the Guardian has learned.<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer is consulting on the proposed changes<\/a>, which would make it harder to achieve settled status in the UK, and is under pressure from within his own party to say the measures should not apply to people who have already entered the UK.<\/p>\n Under the plans, most people would have to wait 10 years to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, rather than the existing five-year period. The Guardian revealed last month that Starmer was already looking at whether to exclude migrants working in the public sector from the changes, as well as those who are on the verge of being settled.<\/p>\n However, the prime minister is still being urged to go further if he wants to avoid widespread anger on the backbenches. The main demand by Labour opponents of the proposals is that the government exempts people who have already arrived in the country, as suggested<\/a> by the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner and others.<\/p>\n One leading backbench rebel said they believed that stopping the changes applying retrospectively would be enough to calm the anger of most opponents \u2013 though several, including the foreign affairs select committee chair, Emily Thornberry, have said that a raft of changes is needed, including on the earned settlement element of the changes.<\/p>\n \u201cI personally disagree with all of the changes to indefinite leave to remain, but I think that the majority of the cohort would accept that compromise,\u201d another MP said.<\/p>\n Downing Street sources said it had always been the case that the changes were subject to consultation, including the retrospective element which, as it stands, would mean people who have entered the UK in the last five years would need to wait longer to be given settlement.<\/p>\n Labour MPs have also been particularly angered by briefings against one of the coordinators of the letter, Tony Vaughan, the MP for Folkestone and Hythe, who was the subject of a Sun article that criticised his record as a human rights and immigration barrister.<\/p>\n The attorney general, Richard Hermer, who has been the subject of similar attacks, is said to have been incensed by the briefing, which Home Office<\/a> sources have denied came from them. The article included a quote from an anonymous Labour MP criticising Vaughan.<\/p>\n Several said they believed the Home Office had not effectively managed concerns. \u201cIf you\u2019ve signed the letter you just get rung up and shouted at,\u201d said one MP. Another said they had received no reply to a private letter sent to Mahmood. \u201cI wrote more than a month ago and it\u2019s not been acknowledged.\u201d<\/p>\n Another MP said there was a degree of \u201ccontempt\u201d for MPs expressing concerns because they would not be able to vote against the changes \u2013 which do not require a parliamentary vote.<\/p>\n London MPs have also raised how much the indefinite leave to remain changes are featuring in the Greens campaigning literature in London. One leaflet in Islington accuses Labour of changing the terms of indefinite leave to remain and \u201cpunishing hardworking migrants\u201d and says the Greens are \u201canti-racists and pro-migrant rights\u201d.<\/p>\n Mahmood, the home secretary, has led the government\u2019s attempts to toughen its approach on immigration as it responds to the rise of Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK. However, many Labour MPs are anxious that the Green party\u2019s victory at the Gorton and Denton byelection<\/a> shows Labour faces as much of a threat on its left as its right.<\/p>\n