Immigration: Earned Settlement

Debate between Shabana Mahmood and Chi Onwurah

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

I absolutely disagree. I simply repeat the point that I have made to many hon. Members on the Lib Dem Benches: a Government need to be able to change the immigration system rules to reflect emerging circumstances. If they had their way, the immigration system would be in absolute chaos. The resolution that we have found between the different cohorts, including those who will now be eligible for a transitional arrangement, represents a fair solution for everyone.

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

I commend my right hon. Friend for consulting so widely in developing the earned settlement proposals and for listening to the representations of care workers in particular. I must express my astonishment at the refusal of Conservative Members to accept moral, social, financial or political responsibility for their failed immigration policies.

These proposals will nevertheless adversely affect many. May I raise in particular early career researchers—postdocs and so on—who will not be earning £50,000 a year but will be contributing to our scientific understanding? Will my right hon. Friend meet me to discuss the impact on our science base?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I am always happy to meet my hon. Friend and will happily discuss those issues with her, but with the proposals that the Government have set out—including the transitional arrangements for those cohorts in health and education, given our reliance on foreign labour in those two sectors and the Migration Advisory Committee’s specific treatment of them—I think that we have found a fair resolution for everyone.

Asylum Policy

Debate between Shabana Mahmood and Chi Onwurah

Monday 17th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

Given that Tommy Robinson does not even think I am English, he will certainly not be supporting anything I have to say, but let us just leave that there. We do not need to hear any more about what vile racists have to say about anything.

Let me say to the hon. Member that it is not a surprise to find a Scottish National party Member of Parliament defending a broken status quo; that is what they do with the Scottish Government under the SNP every day, and it is what he is doing now. I hope he can agree that good, much-needed reform of a broken system is the best way to retain public support for having an asylum system at all.

[Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)]

My right hon. Friend is right to seek to bring order to the chaos at our borders—chaos instituted by the Tories—which undermines trust in our state and imposes such costs on communities. She is also right to address the pull factors that lure migrants to their deaths in our channel, with claims of cushy lives in five-star hotels. She is right to insist that our proposals must reflect British values and work in practice. On that, will she say a bit more about how reviewing refugee status every two years will work in practice, particularly in regard to Home Office capacity and in regard to integration?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I thank my hon. Friend for her comments. We are moving from a situation where refugee status is effectively permanent and the most attractive of all routes into the country to one where it has a more temporary status. I will ensure that the administration and funding are available to run the new system as it is being designed. We are creating the protection work and study route because we believe that the best integration outcomes happen when people are in work and able to contribute. That is how we will retain popular support for having an asylum system. People will transfer, we hope, into the protection work and study route, but if they do not, they will still receive sanctuary from this country under the core protection model, and it will be more regularly reviewed. I hope we can all agree that where a country is safe for an individual to return to, a return should in the normal run of things take place. If people have switched into a work route and are making a contribution, we will set out plans in the coming days for how they can earn their way to an earlier settlement that is longer than what is available to people today—and still longer than what will be available to people on safe and legal routes—but shorter than for those who remain on the core protection model.