Angela Rayner has stood by her criticism of Home Office reforms that would make it harder for foreign care workers to claim permanent residence in the UK, describing them as “disruptive”.
Last year, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced that low paid migrants on jobs below graduate level would have to be in the country for 15 years before applying for settlement. Rayner previously attacked the plans as being “un-British”.
The policy was devised under the previous prime minister, Keir Starmer, to ease voter concerns about net migration numbers.
Andy Burnham, who succeeded Starmer in July, is understood to be uneasy about aspects of the proposals and is considering exempting workers who have already moved to the UK. More than 100 Labour MPs are opposed to the reforms, as are many trade unions.
Hinting at a potential schism in the cabinet in the run-up to Burnham’s first Labour conference as leader, Rayner said the changes would unfairly penalise staff who had “moved their lives here to look after our loved ones”.
The housing secretary, herself a former care worker who left school at 16, had been critical of the plans before she rejoined the cabinet. She was forced to resign as deputy prime minister last year amid a row over unpaid stamp duty on a flat she had bought in Hove.
In an interview with the Times, she said: “In regards to the carers, who were asked to come to this country to care for some of our most vulnerable and then we changed the goalposts years down the line, I think that’s very disruptive.
“I do have concerns about that … when you ask someone to come here and look after your most vulnerable and they spend years dedicating themselves, moving their lives here to look after our loved ones.”
The policy has not yet been finalised, with government officials considering responses to a consultation on the issue.
About 180,000 foreign care workers came to Britain between 2022 and 2024, mainly under previous Conservative governments. Without a law change, many will qualify for permanent residency in 2027.
Last year, the Labour government moved to stop the recruitment of care workers from abroad and also placed restrictions on them bringing family members into the country.
The backbench Labour MP Rachael Maskell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she believed Mahmood’s plans would be altered, so they would not apply retrospectively to those already working in the UK. Rayner added that she believed the home secretary was aware of her stance on the proposals.
“I think Shabana knows,” she said. “It was in the newspaper at the time. I’ve not changed my view on that. I just think when people relocate because we have skills shortages in this country, I think we have to be aware of that.”
Appearing at the home affairs select committee earlier this week, Mahmood said the government would make a decision on the plans imminently.
She said: “I accept that there are a lot of people wondering what rules will apply to them. It is right that the government has taken time to look at consultation responses properly.
“I can assure people we are trying to do a proper piece of work, where we have the right arrangements that strike the right balance between our responsibilities to people who have come here to work, our recognition of the failures we inherited as a government and also our need to do right by the people who are already here and who pay for the systems that we all rely on.”
