Burnham and Mahmood expected to meet this week over immigration reforms
Andy Burnham and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are expected to meet this week to decide whether to water down immigration reforms, with a care worker carve-out possible.
How it was covered
- BBC News was the only channel found covering it.
- Channel 5, BBC One, Channel 4, ITV and Sky News: not found in tracked broadcasts.
- GB News: covered online, not found on air.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story. Facts only one channel reported are attributed to it.
Andy Burnham and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood are expected to hold a crunch meeting this week to decide what to do about the government's immigration reforms, according to unconfirmed briefings. No one would publicly confirm the meeting or its timing. One suggestion is that it could take place on Wednesday, when attention will be on the Budget.
The briefings suggest Burnham may try to loosen or water down Mahmood's stricter immigration proposals. The reforms are meant to be coming fairly soon. The political question is how far the Home Secretary's plans will survive, and whether Burnham will push for changes before they are announced.
One likely outcome, according to the same account, is a carve-out for care workers. Other than that, the reforms could remain broadly untouched, though that is not certain. There are also signs of internal Labour disagreement: Angela Rayner and Miatta Fahnbulleh do not seem to agree with all of Mahmood's plans.
The most controversial part is the retrospective element of the plan for indefinite leave to remain. Foreigners living in the UK are currently told they can stay permanently after five years, which gives them access to benefits and other rights. Mahmood has proposed raising the period to up to 10 years, and possibly 15 years for some people. Labour MPs are concerned about applying the change retrospectively.
The Home Secretary stressed the need for fairness and the rules in a Labour conference speech. That was widely seen as a hint that she might water the reforms down in some way. It is not yet clear whether the meeting will lead to an announcement this week. The timing and the final shape of the reforms remain uncertain.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, grouped by how many channels reported each one. Select a dot to see the source excerpt.
| Claim |  |
|---|---|
| Only on one channel | |
| A key meeting between Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood on immigration reforms is expected this week. | |
| Andy Burnham may seek to soften Shabana Mahmood's stricter immigration proposal. | |
| Shabana Mahmood proposed extending the wait for indefinite leave to remain to as much as 10 or 15 years for some people, with retrospective application causing tension among Labour MPs. | |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
The BBC's Newscast treated the story as a behind-the-scenes political update, with the presenter relaying unconfirmed briefing about a crunch meeting and possible timing around the Budget. It focused on the political management of immigration reforms, including a possible care worker carve-out and Labour MP concerns about retrospective changes. It was candid about uncertainty, stressing that nobody would publicly confirm the meeting or its outcome.
- “I hear that the crunch meeting between Andy Burnham and Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, to decide what to do about the immigration reforms is this week at some point.”
- “it's thought that Andy Burnham may try to loosen or water down Shabana Mahmood's stricter immigration proposal.”
- “The Home Secretary in a Labour conference speech stressed the need for fairness and the rules.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.