HOME SECRETARY MAHMOOD SETS OUT EARNED SETTLEMENT PLANS

Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, set out the government's plans for what she called "earned settlement" in a statement to the Commons. She said the policy, first promised at the Labour Party Conference last month, would be guided "above all" by fairness. Mahmood said this meant fairness to migrants who come to Britain legally and "play their part," and fairness to British citizens who should not "bear a greater burden." She told MPs that Britain "welcomes those who seek a new and better life" within it, but said migrants were expected to contribute to their community. She added that the issue mattered to her because her parents moved to the UK from rural Kashmir more than 50 years ago, having left "a place where power was often arbitrary."

Mahmood described settlement as the right to live permanently in the UK, available after five years, bringing entitlement to free education, NHS treatment and the welfare state. She said the reform rests on a "contract" between those who come to Britain and those already living there. "Solidarity is the precondition for social justice," she told the Commons. Mahmood said she held this view "because I am a Labour politician," and that citizens needed to know "everyone is playing their part."

Channel 4 News interviewed Mahmood at the Home Office and asked how much the concessions to the immigration and settlement reforms would cost. Her statement to the Commons set out the reasoning behind the changes rather than a cost breakdown. The announcement follows the pledge she made at the Labour Party Conference to reform settlement rules. The five-year qualifying period for settlement remains under review as the changes take shape.