CPS Report: Tories propose stricter citizenship rules for all migrants: Wants 10 year PR rule

LONDON Feb 9: The UK’s Opposition Conservative Party on Thursday proposed a clampdown on all migrants by tightening citizenship rules and barring social benefit claimants from residency rights. Kemi Badenoch, who took over from Rishi Sunak in November last year, outlined her first major policy agenda as Tory leader in a move seen as an attempt to win back the support of Conservative voters drawn to the far-right anti-immigrant Reform Party.

Under her proposals, jobless and low-paid foreign workers would be barred from claiming permanent residency in the UK, leaving the door open for them to be returned to their countries of origin.

“Our country is not a dormitory, it’s our home. The right to citizenship and permanent residency should only go to those who have demonstrated a real commitment to the UK,” said Badenoch.

“The Conservative Party is under new leadership. We’re going to tell the hard truths about immigration. The pace of immigration has been too quick and the numbers coming too high for meaningful integration.

“We need to slow down the track for citizenship. A UK passport should be a privilege, not an automatic right,” she said.

Under current rules, foreigners – including Indians – must have lived in the UK for five years before qualifying to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), following which they are entitled to apply for British citizenship and passport 12 months later.

Under any future Badenoch-led Conservative Party government, the qualifying period for ILR would be doubled to 10 years.

The party would also tie any ILR application with those not having claimed any social benefits or used social housing during the entire 10-year period.

They would have to demonstrate that their household would be a “net contributor” to the economy, which would impose a higher earnings threshold, and anyone with a criminal record would be blocked out of the process altogether.

New CPS research shows that between January 2021 and June 2024, over 2 million visas were issued to migrants who will, after five years, be eligible to apply for ILR in the UK. As best we can determine, there has been no attempt by the Government to estimate how many will apply for long-term residency, or the fiscal impact of their doing so.

‘Here to Stay?’, written by CPS Research Director Karl Williams, attempts to fill this gap, by making a range of estimates about how many migrants could be granted ILR based on past trends.

CPS’ central projection suggests 801,000 migrants could apply for ILR. However, taking into account recent changes in the migration mix and behaviour post-pandemic, this could be as high as 1.24 million.

Many of these migrants, as outlined in previous CPS reports, are not ‘the best and brightest’, as was promised, but either low-paid workers (particularly in the care sector) or dependants who may or may not be working. Those individuals are likely to represent a long-term burden on the country’s finances, rather than being net contributors.

Kemi Badenoch also reminded that taxpayers could face an “astronomic” bill of more than £200 billion because of Labour’s failure to tackle mass migration. The Tory leader said that Labour’s “lax approach” would see Britain carry on subsidising low-paid foreign workers and their dependents.

Mrs Badenoch was responding to a think tank report which found households face a long-term bill of £8,200 each to fund extra services for 800,000 recent arrivals.

The Centre for Policy Studies has calculated that more than 800,000 migrants who came to Britain between 2021 and 2024 could permanently settle in the UK. It said the cumulative bill for the extra services and benefits they required, compared with the taxes they would pay, would come to £243 billion over their lifetimes.

Mrs Badenoch said the findings showed that Labour needed to take action to “end the conveyor belt to a precious British passport”.

Mrs Badenoch added: “This new research shows that, if the Government stubbornly refuses to adopt our plan, British taxpayers could be lumbered with an astronomic cost.

“The country simply can’t afford the Labour Party’s lax approach to immigration. I sincerely hope that Labour MPs recognise the strength of public feeling on this issue. I don’t just understand the anger at the levels of immigration, I share it.”

Mrs Badenoch said ministers should slash that cost by adopting her plan to bar jobless and low-paid migrants from securing indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

In her first major policy announcement last week, Mrs Badenoch said migrants should only become eligible for ILR after 10 years in the UK, rather than five. Under the plans, migrants would only be granted indefinite leave if they had been working, claimed no benefits and were “net contributors” to the Exchequer over that decade.