Mahmood admits her migrant care-worker U-turn will swell the welfare bill but refuses to say how much it costs
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 conceded on BBC Radio 4's 'Today' programme that her climbdown on migrant care-worker settlement will increase the welfare bill, but declined to name a figure, promising only "savings in the billions" rather than the £10bn her original plan projected. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp branded the reversal a "total capitulation", while Farage called it "the beginning of the capitulation" and vowed Reform would review every citizenship granted under the scheme.
Under the original plan, some care workers faced a 15-year wait; the revised rules cut that to five years for those earning at least £25,000 who arrived before May 2025.
The number of migrants delayed from gaining permanent residency has fallen from almost 800,000 to just over 500,000 following Monday's climbdown.
A care worker caller named Nick reportedly told LBC the visa scheme is being used as 'a back door' into permanent settlement — a charge the Border Security Minister did not directly rebut.
