Tuesday, July 14, 2026 - Leader of the UK Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has urged the Labour government to retain its proposed 10-year qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain (ILR), insisting that temporary work visas should not automatically lead to permanent settlement in Britain.
Badenoch made the call in a post on her X handle while
releasing a letter addressed to the UK’s Home Secretary, in which she
criticised efforts by some Labour lawmakers to dilute the government’s planned
immigration reforms.
“People who come to Britain on temporary work visas should
not automatically be able to stay forever,” she wrote.“This Labour government
was right to make that harder. Now their MPs want them to U-turn.
Conservatives will back Labour’s original plan to help get it
through Parliament.”In the letter, jointly signed by Badenoch and Shadow Home
Secretary Chris Philp, the Conservatives warned against reports that the
government was considering exempting around two million migrants who entered
the UK on work visas between 2021 and the present from the proposed changes.
Describing the reported exemption as “a grave mistake,”
Badenoch argued that Britain had previously experienced the consequences of
allowing migrants to obtain permanent settlement too quickly. “As Conservatives
learned to our cost, five years is too short a time to obtain the indefinite
right to remain in the UK,” the letter stated.
She further argued that many migrants currently employed in
low-paid and low-skilled jobs could be replaced by economically inactive
British citizens if more employment opportunities were created.
According to Badenoch, migrants who fail to make what she
described as a significant economic contribution over a decade should return to
their home countries once their temporary work visas expire.
“Individuals who are not making a significant economic
contribution over a ten-year period should not be allowed to stay indefinitely.
Those not working, or working in low-paid jobs, should be required to go home
at the end of their temporary work visa,” she wrote.
Badenoch also maintained that granting indefinite leave to remain after just five years increases pressure on Britain’s welfare system because recipients become eligible for social benefits and can later apply for British citizenship.
She argued
that extending the qualifying period to 10 years would not amount to changing
the rules retrospectively, stressing that temporary work visas do not confer an
automatic right to permanent residence.
“The government is perfectly entitled to decide at any time
the rules on indefinite rights of settlement, including in relation to those
here already,” she said. Offering cross-party support,
Badenoch said the Conservative Party would back Labor’s
original immigration proposals if they were introduced without dilution. “If
you table the proposals set out last autumn in undiluted form, either in the
Immigration Rules or as part of the Immigration and Asylum Bill, we will
support them,” the letter said.
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