Big Daddy 💫

Labour’s Diane Abbott slams Labour’s Shabana Mahmood over her new settlement rules, asking how it can be fair to change the goalposts for people who came here legally, worked and built their lives expecting to qualify for permanent residency after five years. Abbott welcomed the exemption for some care workers, but warned that other migrants already here could see their residency rights “turned upside down”. She said the changes risk another Windrush-style injustice. Mahmood rejected the claim that the changes are retrospective, arguing that governments must be able to change immigration rules and that settlement is decided under the rules in force when someone applies. But for people who came here legally and planned their lives around the rules in place at the time, the distinction will offer little comfort. The government may call settlement “earned”; Abbott’s question is whether it is fair to move the finish line after people have already started the journey.