Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood announced on Monday that Britain intends to tighten regulations for permanent settlement by requiring applicants to demonstrate their usefulness to society, including speaking a “high standard” of English.
The idea is the most recent attempt by the government to undermine the growing support of the populist Reform UK party, which has spearheaded the immigration debate and compelled Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party to enact stricter laws.
The majority of migrants can now apply for “indefinite leave to remain”—a status that offers them the right to settle in Britain permanently—after five years of residency.
“The government is considering making changes so people,” she said in her maiden speech as interior minister to the Labour Party convention.
