Her comments follow demands from Angela Rayner<\/a> and from Unison\u2019s general secretary, Andrea Egan, to drop changes to indefinite leave to remain that would penalise overseas care workers looking after the UK\u2019s older citizens.<\/p>\n Mahmood told the conference in Liverpool: \u201cAs we restore control and fairness to our asylum system, we must do the same for legal migration too. Fair to those who seek a new and better life here, like my parents did, and fair to those already here, including British workers, and especially the young.<\/p>\n \u201cThat same principle underpins my reforms to the right to live here indefinitely, ensuring settled status is earned by those who have shown a consistent commitment to this country. I know that throughout our consultation process some have said elements of these reforms are not fair. To that, let me say this: we will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year the government changed visa laws to end the recruitment<\/a> of care workers from abroad in an attempt to reduce net migration. It also banned care workers from bringing family dependants<\/a> with them.<\/p>\n Mahmood\u2019s plans would increase the timeline for permanent residence from five to 15 years for social care workers who arrived on health and care visas. The changes would apply retrospectively to people who have arrived since 2021.<\/p>\n Rayner, the housing, communities and local government secretary, said over the weekend that Mahmood\u2019s plans would hit foreign care workers who had \u201cmoved their lives here to look after our loved ones\u201d.<\/p>\n Speaking to the Guardian\u2019s Politics Weekly podcast, the energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, who was brought to the UK as a child fleeing the civil war in Liberia, admitted her family would have found Mahmood\u2019s changes tough.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been tough,\u201d she said. \u201cI represent a constituency which is hugely diverse, where we\u2019ve got first-, second-, third-generation immigrants, and how we navigate this landscape has been tough.\u201d<\/p>\n A protest outside the conference on Monday by a leading trade union called for migrant workers not to be made scapegoats for the failure to invest in public services.<\/p>\n Egan said: \u201cPeople who came to this country to help look after our loved ones are forced to work on restricted visas under harsh rules which make them second-class citizens. Now the promise of being able to settle in the country after five years is not only being broken but replaced with the threat of 15 years of insecurity and exploitation. Moving the goalposts at this stage in the game is wrong and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n Sources close to Mahmood said no decision had been made on the indefinite leave to remain proposals, adding that the speech set out the principles underpinning those decisions.<\/p>\n In a further development, Mahmood said that from next month the government would begin accepting applications from charities and nonprofit organisations to sponsor refugees through new safe and legal routes.<\/p>\n![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1504.jpg\")
Andy Burnham \u2018prepared\u2019 to deliver radical change despite economic challenges \u2013 video<\/p>\n
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