UK plans tougher residency rules based on English skills, civic conduct

By Andrew MacAskill

LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) -Britain plans to tighten the rules over how migrants can settle permanently by making applicants prove their value to society, including being able to speak a "high standard" of English, interior minister Shabana Mahmood said on Monday.

The plan is the latest government effort to dent the rising popularity of the populist Reform UK party, which has led the debate on tackling immigration and forced Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party to toughen its policies.

Most migrants can currently apply for "indefinite leave to remain" after five years of living in Britain, a status that gives them the right to live permanently in the country.

In her first speech to the Labour Party conference as interior minister, Mahmood said the government is considering making changes so people will only qualify for this status if they pay social security contributions, have a clean criminal record, do not claim benefits, can speak English, and have a record of volunteering in their communities.

RIGHT TO SETTLE MUST BE EARNED

"Time spent in this country alone is not enough," Mahmood said. "You must earn the right to live in this country."

A consultation on the proposals will be launched later this year, she said, and this builds on the government's earlier announcement that this standard qualifying period would be changed to a baseline of 10 years.

Mahmood said her plans mean some people who live in Britain for more than a decade could still be denied permission to permanently remain if they fail to meet new standards.

Nigel Farage's anti-immigration Reform UK, which is leading in opinion polls, said last week it was considering scrapping "indefinite leave to remain", and replacing it with a five-year renewable work visa.

Starmer accused Reform on Sunday of planning a "racist policy" of mass deportations, although he clarified he did not think Reform supporters were racist.

Lawyers said the new requirements may discourage some people moving to Britain, and requiring people to volunteer would be hard to assess.

Mahmood told the conference she was willing to be unpopular to stop the arrival of tens of thousands of people on small boats from Europe.

"We will have to question some of the assumptions and legal constraints that have lasted for a generation and more," she said. "Without control, we simply do not have the conditions in which our country can be open, tolerant and generous."

Immigration has long been one of the most important issues for voters in Britain. Controlling the number of arrivals was a key factor in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, yet net arrivals hit record levels after Britain left the bloc.

(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill;Editing by Elizabeth Piper, Helen Popper, William Maclean)