Talks between Shabana Mahmood and a powerful Labour-affiliated union opposed to her hardline immigration reforms broke down after the Home Secretary refused to allow a migrant care worker to attend the meeting.
The Home Secretary was due to hold private talks with Unison general secretary Andrea Egan on Wednesday, with the union spearheading a Labour revolt against plans to make it harder for migrants to settle in the UK.
But the meeting was cancelled by Unison after Mahmood refused Egan’s late request to bring a migrant care worker who will be affected by the “earned settlement” changes, The i Paper understands.
The explosive row risks deepening Labour and Cabinet splits over the Home Secretary’s plans to double the default time migrants must live in the UK before qualifying for settlement from five to 10 years, with some having to wait even longer based on their job or other criteria.
Labour MPs and Unison are particularly concerned about plans to apply the longer waits to migrants already working in the UK, with the union highlighting the impact on foreign workers who are plugging job gaps in social care, a key priority for Andy Burnham.
Tensions in the Cabinet over the policy surfaced when Housing Secretary Angela Rayner publicly attacked the prospect of backdating the plans.
Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh repeatedly refused to say she backed Mahmood’s plans on Wednesday.
Care worker ‘wanted to make case for others’
A senior union source blamed Mahmood for cancelling the meeting, saying Egan has previously brought workers who are lay members of the union to meetings at the Home Office without objection.
But a Home Office source said the talks were set up to be a private meeting between Mahmood and Egan, and the union had chosen to cancel.
Unison is “surprised and disappointed the Home Secretary refused the opportunity to hear from a care worker who would be directly affected by the proposals”, the union source said.
The care worker who Egan wanted to bring to the meeting has completed an NVQ level 3 and is set to do further qualifications so that he can develop his career in the sector, and was planning to tell Mahmood about why he and many other Unison members had chosen to work in the sector.
The Unison member said caring for others was “the most honourable thing you can do with your life”, adding that “nothing is more beautiful than being able to reassure and support someone who needs your help”.
With dozens of Labour MPs thought to be opposed to Mahmood’s proposals, No 10 on Wednesday refused to rule out a watering down of the plans, with Mahmood believed to be considering exempting care workers or removing the retrospective application of the plans entirely.
According to the Home Office source, Mahmood believed it would be wrong to prioritise the views of one migrant care worker as she considered 200,000 responses to a consultation on her reforms, including from more than 145,000 migrants who will be directly affected by the plans.
The Home Secretary is under pressure from the right to deal with the so-called “Boris wave” of record immigration which could mean hundreds of thousands of migrants who arrived from 2021 will soon get the right to settle in the UK, including tens of thousands of health and care workers, and be entitled to benefits.
Growing Labour splits over hardline reforms
Egan said: “The Home Secretary must drop these nasty proposals instead of doubling down. Migrant workers across public services, especially in health and social care, play a vital role in keeping the country running. They should not be kept in purgatory for 15 years, unable to settle in the country they have made their home.
“Tearing up the rules that migrant workers have faithfully followed is deeply unfair. Doing so to appease the far right will fail. It will fuel racism, damage communities and leave no one better off.
“We urge the Home Secretary to properly engage with us, including workers affected by her proposals, and to help bring the country together rather than perpetuating division.”
Fahnbulleh hinted she would favour a watering down of the retrospective action of the plans, telling Sky News: “Our principles have to be a system where we’ve got control, but ultimately a system that when people do come to this country, they are able to integrate, they are able to contribute, and that we both respect but also value that contribution.”
She also said: “I support reforms that says that people have to contribute and make a contribution to this country in order to get citizenship”,
Asked by The i Paper whether tweaks to the Home Secretary’s initial revamp – including applying the policy retrospectively – could be ruled out, the Prime Minister’s press secretary told reporters: “We set out proposals for consultation. We’ve consulted on what the transition arrangement should look like [for] people already in the UK who have not received settled status.
“The Home Secretary is leading a thorough piece of work to ensure we get this right and have the right arrangements in place.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government would set out its response “later this year”.