Burnham says foreign care workers should be ‘welcomed’ and suggests they could be exempt from settlement crackdown – UK politics live

New PM implies care workers could be exempt from Home Office plan to make foreign workers wait longer until they can apply for indefinite leave to remain I have already posted lines from Andy Burnham’s BBC interview on reforming social care (see 9.03am), making council tax fairer (see 10.03am), and ruling out an early election (see 11.56am). And yesterday Peter Walker wrote up the lines in the interview from Burnham saying he would disagree with Donald Trump if necessary.Here are some of the other comments worth flagging up.Burnham suggested care workers should be exempt from Shabana Mahmood’s plan to make foreign workers wait much longer until they can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Currently workers normally have to wait five years until they qualify for settlement. Under Mahmood’s plans, the norm will become 10 years, and care workers could even have to wait 15 years (because working in a low-pay sector means they contribute less to the exchequer, the Home Office argues). Last week Kiran Stacey and Patrick Butler reported that Burnham may order a rethink. Continue reading...

Jul 27, 2026 - 16:20

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Burnham says foreign care workers should be ‘welcomed’ and suggests they could be exempt from settlement crackdown – UK politics live

New PM implies care workers could be exempt from Home Office plan to make foreign workers wait longer until they can apply for indefinite leave to remain

I have already posted lines from Andy Burnham’s BBC interview on reforming social care (see 9.03am), making council tax fairer (see 10.03am), and ruling out an early election (see 11.56am). And yesterday Peter Walker wrote up the lines in the interview from Burnham saying he would disagree with Donald Trump if necessary.

Here are some of the other comments worth flagging up.

Burnham suggested care workers should be exempt from Shabana Mahmood’s plan to make foreign workers wait much longer until they can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK. Currently workers normally have to wait five years until they qualify for settlement. Under Mahmood’s plans, the norm will become 10 years, and care workers could even have to wait 15 years (because working in a low-pay sector means they contribute less to the exchequer, the Home Office argues). Last week Kiran Stacey and Patrick Butler reported that Burnham may order a rethink.