Tories accuse Shabana Mahmood of U-turn on indefinite leave to remain
Conservatives say the home secretary is backing down on plans for indefinite leave to remain, as Downing Street declines to say what a stopover to collect Andy Burnham cost.
The Conservatives have accused Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of performing a U-turn on her policy on indefinite leave to remain, the settled status that allows migrants to live and work in the UK without time limits. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said Mahmood was giving in to what he called the « open-borders Labour left », ahead of an announcement she was due to make later in the day.
The criticism came during a day of political coverage that also turned to the prime minister's travel. Downing Street declined to say how much it cost for the plane carrying Andy Burnham and UK delegates to a Commonwealth leaders' summit to stop in Manchester to pick him up, the Press Association reported. Asked at the morning lobby briefing whether this was an appropriate use of public money, the prime minister's spokesperson said his travel arrangements were made on the basis of security, operational requirements and value for money for the taxpayer.
The spokesperson added that the prime minister's travel arrangements reflected where he was carrying out official government business at the end of the previous week. Burnham's presence on the flight and the decision to route it through Manchester have therefore become a point of questioning, even though the government has not put a figure on the cost.
The Conservative attack on Mahmood centres on the claim that the government is retreating from a tougher line on settlement for migrants. Philp's comments frame any change as a concession to the left of the Labour party rather than a policy decision in its own right. The government has not yet set out the detail of the announcement that was expected later in the afternoon, so the scope of any shift in the indefinite leave to remain policy remains unclear from the material available.
Migration and settlement rules have been among the most contested issues in British politics, with the opposition regularly pressing ministers to show they are reducing net migration. Any change to how long migrants must wait before gaining permanent settlement would draw close attention from both the Conservatives and Labour's own backbenchers, given the party's internal divisions on the issue.
The developments were reported in the Guardian's live politics coverage. Further details of Mahmood's announcement and of the government's response to the cost questions were expected to follow.
Source: theguardian.com
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