Cabinet split widens as minister refuses to back Shabana Mahmood’s immigration plans

A cabinet split over Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policy has deepened after the energy secretary refused to say she backed plans to make foreign workers wait 15 years to claim permanent residency in the UK.

Miatta Fahnbulleh said in an interview with Sky News that changes to the immigration system were needed and that they should be “based on the principle of compassion” and recognising contribution.

She avoided explicitly expressing her support for Mahmood’s plans to extend from five to 15 years the time before foreign workers can claim permanent residence in the UK.

It comes days after she appeared to criticise the plans on her Peckham constituency website in a post about a community discussion that was later removed. In the original account she was quoted as saying: “If we continually prolong the time people have to wait for settlement, we can also prolong the process of building cohesion.”

Mahmood has hinted that her plan to make it harder to claim permanent residence could be watered down to avoid a Labour rebellion after criticism from senior MPs. Earlier this year the housing secretary, Angela Rayner, publicly criticised the plans, and dozens of Labour MPs oppose the changes, which would be backdated to 2021.

Andy Burnham is considering exempting care work from the extension but the Home Office has argued that will lead to an exodus of foreign workers from the sector when they are no longer bound by the terms of their visa.

Challenged on whether she backed Mahmood’s plans on Wednesday, Fahnbulleh told Sky News: “We have got to reform our immigration system, and my view is that we need a system that is based on the principle of compassion, contribution. And so there is a package of reforms. The home secretary has been consulting on this. She’s looking at the range of responses, and she will come out with the measures that we take forward.

“No one can look at our immigration system – and I say this as someone that came to this country as a refugee – and not believe that it’s broken and not believe that we need to fundamentally reform it.

“But our principles has to be a system where we’ve got control, but ultimately a system that when people do come to this country, they are able to integrate, they are able to contribute, and that we both respect but also value that contribution.”

She said she supported “reforms that say that people have to contribute and make a contribution to this country in order to get citizenship”, adding: “I 100% back Shabana Mahmood and everything she is trying to do.”

But she avoided multiple questions on the prospect of a 15-year wait. When it was put to her that she did not back that specific proposal, Fahnbulleh said: “Don’t … put words in my mouth.”

A government source pointed out that “the minister clearly supported the policy and process” in her interviews, “but while subject to review of the consultation, the final policy is not set – so ministers cannot offer opinions on specific parts of it”.

Rayner on Tuesday sought to downplay reports of a cabinet rift over Mahmood’s plans, saying she was sure her colleague would “land” on a policy that was fair to both taxpayers and migrants after a consultation.

A government spokesperson said: “This government has announced reforms that mean settlement must be earned and not automatic. We are currently considering responses to our consultation on elements of these reforms.”