Care Providers and MPs Warn Settlement Overhaul Could Repeat Windrush-Style Harm
Care England, the Society of Radiographers and a cross-party group of MPs have called on ministers to abandon plans to lengthen the route to permanent settlement for migrants, warning the changes could echo the Windrush scandal and damage an already stretched workforce.
In a joint letter sent on Thursday to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Health Secretary Yvette Cooper, 17 signatories urged the Government to think again about its “earned settlement” reforms. The letter was coordinated by the charity Work Rights Centre. Other signatories include Action for Race Equality, Labour peer Baroness Lister, and MPs from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the SNP and Your Party. Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell also signed.
What is proposed
The plans, first set out by Ms Mahmood in November 2025, would double the standard period before most migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain, from five years to ten. Care workers could face a wait of up to 15 years. The Home Secretary is expected to publish final policy this autumn.
The signatories describe the proposals as “unfair” and the possible application to people already in the UK as “punitive”. They argue the package follows the pattern of policies that led to the Windrush scandal, in which British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with removal despite their right to live in the UK. Many lost jobs and homes and were refused healthcare and benefits. Campaigners now often call it the Home Office scandal.
The letter notes that the reforms would hit migrants who came to work in health and care during the Covid-19 pandemic, drawing a parallel with the Windrush generation, who arrived to help staff the newly created NHS.
Workforce warning
The signatories say the changes would “increase workforce instability” in health and care and ultimately harm public health. They describe the sector as already “dangerously under-staffed” and point to vacancies as a persistent problem across the NHS, particularly in radiography.
They cite Office for National Statistics figures putting the vacancy rate in NHS England at 6.7%, against 2.1% across the UK economy. The Government, they argue, cannot hit its targets on waiting lists and cancer treatment without keeping and growing its pool of professionals.
Adult social care, the letter adds, remains “structurally reliant” on international recruitment, meaning unmet need for care would rise if these workers left or chose not to come. The signatories also warn that longer settlement periods prolong family separation, which could hurt both recruitment and retention.
Demands
The letter asks ministers to:
implement the recommendations of Wendy Williams’s 2020 Windrush Lessons Learned Review;
delay any reforms until impact assessments have been published and scrutinised;
rule out applying new rules retrospectively to individuals and families already in the UK; and
if the changes go ahead, exempt all health and care workers and their dependants from any longer settlement period.
The signatories also challenge Ms Mahmood over her 2025 statement on Windrush, in which she said the Government must do everything in its power to right the historic wrong. They argue the same groups are now being targeted.
Political context
The proposals have prompted a backlash among Labour MPs. Cabinet tensions emerged earlier this year when Housing Secretary Angela Rayner publicly criticised the idea of backdating the changes.
Last week, amid speculation that the plans might be softened to head off a rebellion, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he strongly backed the principle that indefinite leave to remain is a “right to be earned”. He stopped short of committing to the Home Secretary’s full package, saying the Government had been consulting and would announce decisions soon.
The letter follows a parliamentary event on the issue in September, organised by the Work Rights Centre and hosted by Ms Ribeiro-Addy, MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill.
