Leader of the UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has called on the Labour government to maintain its proposed 10-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), arguing that people who move to Britain on temporary work visas should not automatically be granted permanent residency.
Badenoch made the appeal in a post on her X account while releasing a letter addressed to the UK Home Secretary, in which she criticised attempts by some Labour lawmakers to weaken the government’s planned immigration reforms.
“People who come to Britain on temporary work visas should not automatically be able to stay forever,” she wrote.
“This Labour government was right to make that harder. Now their MPs want them to U-turn.
Conservatives will back Labour’s original plan to help get it through Parliament.”
In the jointly signed letter with Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, the Conservatives warned against reports that the government was considering exempting about two million migrants who arrived in the UK on work visas between 2021 and the present from the proposed changes.
Describing the reported exemption as “a grave mistake,” Badenoch argued that Britain had previously experienced the consequences of allowing migrants to obtain permanent settlement too quickly.
“As Conservatives learned to our cost, five years is too short a time to obtain the indefinite right to remain in the UK,” the letter stated.
She further argued that many migrants currently employed in low-paid and low-skilled jobs could be replaced by economically inactive British citizens if more employment opportunities were created.
According to Badenoch, migrants who fail to make what she described as a significant economic contribution over a 10-year period should return to their home countries once their temporary work visas expire.
“Individuals who are not making a significant economic contribution over a ten-year period should not be allowed to stay indefinitely. Those not working, or working in low-paid jobs, should be required to go home at the end of their temporary work visa,” she wrote.