Indefinite Leave to Remain
Debate between Tony Vaughan and Warinder Juss(3 days, 19 hours ago)
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Tony Vaughan
I completely agree. It is the moving of the goalposts that most colleagues in the Chamber find really problematic.
Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
Does my hon. and learned Friend agree, as a fellow lawyer, that it is rather unusual to bring retrospective legislation into effect? There have been previous cases where legislation has been made retrospective, but that has been to punish crime. We are talking about ordinary, decent people who have come to this country to better not only their own lives but our lives and those of the rest of the community. Does he agree that it is absolutely wrong to have the law applied retrospectively, and that it puts the legal system to shame?
Tony Vaughan
I completely agree. The common law sets its face against retrospectivity, and that principle should preclude this change.
I want to address other elements of the consultation. The Government suggest a system of credits, for things including “social contribution”, to shorten the 10-year wait. On the face of it that sounds reasonable, but its proposed definition is dangerously narrow. It includes the police and the NHS but inexplicably, in my view, excludes care workers in the private sector. Why are we proposing a bureaucratic minefield of “volunteering credits”, which could be very difficult to verify, while ignoring the immense social value that care workers give during a 12-hour shift looking after our elderly? Their job is their contribution, and that should be the credit.