Perran Moon
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Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
I thank my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for securing this important debate.
In my Camborne, Redruth and Hayle constituency, there is profound anxiety about the changes to indefinite leave to remain. The Minister knows that, because I have written to him on the subject already. The Government’s May 2025 White Paper sets out proposals to increase the standard qualifying period for settlement from five to 10 years, with some groups potentially eligible earlier, depending on criteria that have yet to be developed.
I support a consultation on tighter restrictions on indefinite leave to remain for people who have not yet arrived in the UK, but I am deeply uncomfortable with the principle of changing the rules for people already in the UK who have so often experienced huge upheaval to settle in the UK. They described to me having made decisions about work, housing, education and family life based on the existing five-year pathway. Many have shared the emotional toll of the uncertainty that they are now experiencing. Are they working hard and paying their taxes in the UK, only for the goalposts to move and for the terms under which they came to the UK to change? I am afraid that that is not right. It is not keeping our word. It is not fair play. Dare I say it, it is not British.
Many of the people I have talked to in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle—like the people in Folkestone and Hythe and in the highlands who have been mentioned—work in the NHS, social care and hospitality. In Cornwall, we already have chronic shortages of those types of worker. As the Cornish population ages and birth rates fall, it seems counterintuitive to present barriers before the very people we need more of. What we really need is a frank, honest discussion about immigration. While Reform—and, I dare say, what is left of the Conservatives —will always use this issue to promote their dog-whistle dogma, it is simply a fact that the UK needs immigrants to fill our skills gaps and increase UK productivity and innovation, or we will not achieve our economic goals and targets.
Concerns relating to spiralling welfare costs and wage undercutting can and should be addressed directly, as separate issues. For people already in the UK, we need to honour the terms under which they came and end the pain and anxiety that they are suffering.