- Angela Rayner criticized Shabana Mahmood’s plan to extend care workers’ wait to fifteen years for UK settlement.
- The proposal would increase the standard settlement wait from five years to ten for most migrants.
- More than one hundred Labour MPs oppose the plan; the government expects to decide by the end of twenty twenty-six.
Angela Rayner criticized Shabana Mahmood’s migrant visa plans on Saturday, saying the proposed settlement changes would “change the goalposts” for care workers who came to Britain expecting to qualify for permanent residence. The dispute surfaced ahead of Labour’s conference in Liverpool.
Rayner said she had not changed her position. “I think Shabana knows. It was in the newspaper at the time. I have not changed my view on that.”
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She has argued that the government should not alter the settlement terms for care workers years after they arrived. The proposal is still under consideration.
Labour’s conference was due to begin Sunday, September 28, 2026. The settlement plan is expected to become a point of internal dispute there.
The proposal would stretch settlement waits to 10 and 15 years
The overhaul would lengthen the standard route to indefinite leave to remain from five years to 10 years for most migrants. Health and social care visa holders would face a 15-year wait.
That is the proposal’s central change. The current route allows settlement after five years.
The changes would apply to people who came to the UK since 2021, bringing the argument beyond future applicants. The question is whether people who arrived under the existing route should face the longer timetable retroactively.
Mahmood is leading the immigration overhaul. The plans continue or expand on an earlier policy associated with Keir Starmer, according to the background described in reporting on the proposal.
Rayner says care workers built lives around the existing rules
Rayner has framed her objection around workers who were recruited to care for people in the UK and then made plans under the five-year route. She said the shift would disrupt those workers’ expectations.
“Especially in regards to the carers, who were asked to come to this country to care for some of our most vulnerable and then we changed the goalposts years down the line, I think that's very disruptive.”
She also pointed to the personal cost of relocating and spending years in care work. “I do have concerns about that … when you ask someone to come here and look after your most vulnerable and they spend years dedicating themselves, moving their lives here to look after our loved ones.”
Rayner had earlier called the proposal “un-British.” In June 2026, she also described retrospective changes to settlement rules for migrants already working in the UK as “incorrect.”
The objection comes from inside the senior ranks of government. Rayner is the Housing Secretary and Communities Secretary, while Mahmood holds the Home Secretary role and is driving the policy.
Workers who arrived in 2022 could lose the five-year route
The change could affect workers who arrived in 2022. Under the existing rules, they would otherwise have become eligible for settlement in February 2027.
That date gives the dispute an immediate practical edge. A longer qualifying period could postpone settlement for people who have already spent years in Britain under the current route.
More than 100 Labour MPs were reported to have signed a letter opposing the proposals and calling for foreign care workers to be exempted. Trade unions have also opposed the plan.
The Prime Minister was reported to be reconsidering the proposals and to have indicated that an exemption for foreign care workers could be possible. The party’s argument therefore includes both the length of the new route and whether existing workers should be treated differently.
The conference dispute follows Rayner’s return to government
Rayner’s public criticism comes after Prime Minister Andy Burnham reappointed her to government before the conference, according to reporting on the reshuffle. Her challenge puts a senior minister’s disagreement with the Home Secretary’s proposal in view as Labour gathers in Liverpool.
Mahmood said the government expects to decide on the settlement overhaul by the end of the year. The policy and any transitional arrangements are due to be set out later in 2026.
