Immigration: Earned Settlement

Debate between Shabana Mahmood and Hannah Spencer

Monday 2nd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Hannah Spencer (Gorton and Denton) (Green)]

By allowing those with more money to jump the queue and receive earned settlement status faster, these changes amount to an attack on lower-paid workers and, by extension, lower-paid British-born people too. Time and again the working classes, whatever their nationality or migration status, have been looked down on and left behind. Does the Home Secretary agree that her changes send a clear message to people who have come here or people who have been born here that they are worth less if they do not earn enough?

[Shabana Mahmood]

I reject that entirely. First of all, lower-paid British workers are already British; they do not need settlement in their own country. In this policy, including with all its transitional arrangements, the Government have recognised public service alongside earnings for faster pathways to settlement. I ask her to bear in mind that the highest earners pay the highest in tax, and it is our taxpayers’ money that funds the public services that we all rely on. We have found a solution that is fair for everybody, rewarding those who make the biggest contribution, including in public service roles.