Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Seema Malhotra and Mike Wood

Monday 24th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mike Wood (Kingswinford and South Staffordshire) (Con)]

2. What assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Seema Malhotra)]

Settlement in the UK is a privilege, not an automatic entitlement. There is already a range of periods of time that people are required to spend in the UK before they qualify for settlement. The number of people granted settlement each year will reflect the number of migrants coming to the UK in earlier years. This Government are determined to bring control to the immigration system and to bring net migration down, and we keep all our policies under review.

[Mike Wood]

There is clearly a cost to doing nothing about the current indefinite leave to remain policy, and a recent Centre for Policy Studies report estimates the net lifetime cost as £234 billion for those expected to be granted ILR over the next five years. What is the Minister’s assessment of that cost?

[Seema Malhotra]

I gently say to the hon. Member that the number of settlement grants grew by almost a third in the final year that his party was in government, compared with 2023. We will take absolutely no lessons from the Tory party and a shadow Home Secretary who completely lost control of our borders, allowing net migration to quadruple to a record high of nearly 1 million while the number of dangerous boat crossings soared.