Shabana Mahmood opens safe refugee routes and signals indefinite leave to remain rethink

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood used her Labour conference speech to announce capped safe and legal routes for refugees and to signal a rethink of reforms to indefinite leave to remain.

She began by addressing the incident outside RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. She thanked the police and said the nationalities of those responsible were known and all were British citizens. She said the Army's explosive ordnance disposal team had made the scene safe and that residents of Whelford would soon return home. She warned against speculation that could prejudice investigations, said the country must remain vigilant at a time of heightened threat, and told those who plot violence: 'You will never defeat us.'

Mahmood presented her first year as home secretary as a record of falling crime and migration. She said knife crime, serious violence, net migration and small boat crossings were all down. She paid tribute to her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, for laying foundations. She framed her approach around fairness, saying it was unfair that criminal gangs controlled the border, that dangerous boats were put to sea, and that people with genuine protection needs had no safe legal route. She also said it was unfair that communities had been asked to bear a great burden, with around 90,000 people in asylum accommodation.

She said the government had stopped more than 48,000 attempted crossings and that this summer had the lowest number of small boat arrivals since 2021. Alongside enforcement, she announced new capped routes. From next month, charities and non-profits can apply to sponsor refugees through a community sponsorship route and a student sponsorship route. Applications open in October, with first arrivals in autumn next year. Applications for sponsors for a further work route will open next spring.

She also said the government would reopen the UK resettlement route with the United Nations, taking vulnerable refugees from around the world. She said the first arrivals would come this year, and around a quarter would be Afghan women and girls fleeing the Taliban and Palestinians who had fled Gaza.

On legal migration, Mahmood defended plans to make settled status something earned through a consistent commitment to the UK. She acknowledged criticism of the reforms. She said the government would reach a position that balances fairness for those who came legally and fairness to British citizens. Coverage of her speech treated that as a hint that the plans could be watered down.

The proposals have been controversial inside Labour. The original idea was to double the time migrants already in the UK must wait for permanent residence. Critics, including unions and Angela Rayner, opposed applying the changes retrospectively from 2021. Care workers could face waiting 15 years instead of five before applying for indefinite leave to remain. Mahmood argued she was dealing with a post-2021 wave of immigration and said the government had inherited a disaster. The Prime Minister is also said to want to look again at the reforms.

Policy experts explained that indefinite leave to remain normally comes after five years of continuous residence. It gives most rights of citizenship, except voting and a passport, and full access to welfare. The earned settlement plans could mean a 15-year route for care and middle-skilled workers, a 10-year route for skilled workers, and an earnings requirement of at least £12,570 a year as well as national insurance contributions. Around 500,000 migrant workers are approaching eligibility, making the retrospective element especially contentious. Net migration has fallen from a post-Brexit peak of about 900,000 to under 200,000, driven by falls in work and study migration. Asylum migration is less easy to control and has increased.

The speech came on a day when three people died in the Channel. A 10-year-old child and two women in their thirties were crushed in a dinghy packed with about 100 people. Around 100 people were rescued and returned to Calais. Further west, in Graveline, police used tear gas as dawn broke to stop migrants reaching the water. A dinghy was slashed, gas canisters were left on the beach, and police removed the boat's engine. Campaigners welcomed the new routes cautiously. One advocate said Afghan women resisting the Taliban deserved a safer place. A Calais refugee charity warned that eligibility rules would still leave many people seeking illegal routes.

Mahmood also said serious crimes were falling, with murder down 9 per cent, serious violence down 11 per cent and knife robberies down 16 per cent. But she said progress was uneven. A crime victim in one part of the country could be two and a half times more likely to see the crime solved than a victim elsewhere. She said shop theft remained too high. She argued that fairness required action in every community, including neighbourhood policing.