Immigration: Earned Settlement

James Cleverly Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Let me confirm to my hon. Friend that those who arrived on the BNO route are exempt from these changes. He knows that they have to meet the minimum requirements for English language, as well as no criminality and so on, but he should also know that the over-65s are exempt from the change in relation to English, which I think also provides a fair resolution for those who arrived on that route.

[Sir James Cleverly (Braintree) (Con)]

A Home Secretary clearing up the mess of her immediate predecessor—who would have thought it? When I brought through changes to the visa regime, the chorus of disapproval from the then Opposition, who now sit on the Government Benches, was deafening. She has already conceded that her proposals are not as robust as the announcement she made this time last year, so what confidence can the House or the country have that she will not further water down the proposals she has announced today as they go through the legislative process?

[Shabana Mahmood]

Let me say to one of my many predecessors as Home Secretary that the proposals I have announced today are far, far more robust than everything he and his Government left behind. It is their mess that this Government have been cleaning up. The right hon. Gentleman will know that both myself and my immediate predecessor as Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley (Yvette Cooper), are responsible for a number of changes, including: closing the care worker route to overseas workers; the requirement for sponsors to be Care Quality Commission rated; suspending family reunion for refugees while we settle family migration policy as we go into next year; and raising salary thresholds. This Government —both myself and my predecessor—have been taking the action that is needed and that is why net migration is down 82%.