More Than 100 Labour MPs Oppose Starmer’s Immigration Reforms

More than 100 Labour MPs have signed a private letter urging prime minister Keir Starmer to rethink the most drastic tightening of immigration law proposed in a generation.

In a speech on Thursday, home secretary Shabana Mahmood announced a pilot scheme that offers up to £40k to families whose asylum applications have been rejected to leave the country voluntarily, or else face forcible removal. 

Other key changes include longer waits before refugees can claim indefinite leave to remain – up to 20 years – and that refugees will be reassessed every 30 months, with people whose countries of origin are considered safe told they must go home.

The scale of opposition in the private letter seen by Bloomberg amounts to a quarter of the parliamentary Labour party.

Tony Vaughan, MP for Folkestone and Hythe, told the Guardian: “You don’t win back public confidence in the asylum system by threatening to forcibly remove refugees who have lived here lawfully for 15 or 20 years. That just breeds insecurity and fractured communities.”

“We can change our immigration system for the better without forgetting who we are as a Labour party,” Vaughan added.

Mahmood’s plans will also increase the baseline length of time a migrant must live in the UK before claiming residency from five years to ten. However, access to indefinite leave will be stratified by wages, with low-paid migrant workers like nurses made to wait for 15 years and those earning above £120k eligible after only three years. 

“The generosity of the British people will become conditional on those seeking asylum following the law, living by our rules and not working,” she said on Thursday. 

“If we don’t resolve these problems, others with none of our values will be given the chance to do so instead.”

Some of Mahmood’s plans will become law without passing through parliament, although secondary changes – such as removing support from asylum seekers with criminal sentences of 12 months or more – must pass through the Commons. Labour MPs now have 40 days to object.

Sophia Sheera is a journalist in Novara Media’s social media team.