Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood admits her migrant care worker U-turn will push up the welfare bill and won't save £10bn
Nigel Farage, who vowed to rescind citizenship grants that do not add value to Britain, as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also quietly dropped plans to bar newly settled migrants from claiming benefits.Andy Burnham (left), Mayor of Greater Manchester, with Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner — whose support for the care-worker climbdown means 282,000 of the 1.9 million migrants due to settle by 2030 will face no extra delay.Mahmood's climbdown will reduce the number of people facing delayed settlement to just over 500,000, well down from nearly 800,000 under her original plans.
Mahmood told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that her revised settlement plans will cost more than her original proposals, saying savings would be "in the billions" but refusing to quantify the gap. The Home Office had forecast a £10bn saving from the scrapped 15-year wait; the replacement five-year route — open to care workers on at least £25,000 who had come to the UK before May 2025 — wipes out that figure and will add to the welfare bill.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp branded the climbdown a 'total capitulation', claiming even migrants who 'committed fraud to get here' will now be allowed to settle.
The number of people whose path to permanent residency will be delayed now stands at just over 500,000 — well below the nearly 800,000 affected under the original plans — and Mahmood has refused to put a price on that reduction.
Nigel Farage called the U-turn 'the beginning of the capitulation', warning Reform would review every citizenship granted under the revised scheme if it wins power.
