Immigration reforms will save taxpayers billions of pounds from ballooning benefits bill, says Shabana Mahmood

Reforms to indefinite leave to remain will save taxpayers billions of pounds from Britain's ballooning benefits bill, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told GB News.

Ms Mahmood, who unveiled her migration changes in the House of Commons earlier today, stopped short of committing to the £10billion savings set out in February.

The Home Secretary was forced to carve out changes following a consultation process, with just 18 per cent of 202,000 respondents being British citizens.

Speaking to GB News, Ms Mahmood insisted the changes would still deliver savings.

She said: "We know that there will be savings to the DWP of billions, and that is because the cohort was most likely to require benefits assistance."

The Home Secretary confirmed she will set out an impact assessment later this year.

Ms Mahmood's reforms will see most migrants wait 10 years before qualifying for indefinite leave to remain, double the current five-year period.

Migrants earning more than £50,271 a year will retain a five-year route to settlement, with special carve-outs for doctors, nurses and teachers.

However, migrants who arrive in the UK via small boat could face a 20-year wait for settlement, rising to 30 years for those who cross the Channel under the proposed arrangements.

Ms Mahmood stressed the longer waiting period is designed to deter migrants wanting to make the dangerous 21-mile journey.

"If you enter by illegal means, that adds an additional 10-year waiting period," the Home Secretary said.

"And that is because we want to disincentivise people getting on a boat."

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The Home Secretary also argued that migrants who arrive through legal routes should be treated differently, saying: "If you arrive on a safe and legal route, one of the routes that this Government has set up, you will settle the fastest at five years."

Asked why migrants who cross the Channel could not simply be deported, Ms Mahmood said the UK remained bound by international obligations.

She told GB News: "We're in the refugee convention. We are, of course, obliged to allow people to make that asylum claim if they are going to."

The Home Secretary defended the wider reforms amid a backlash from the Labour Left.

She insisted that settlement should be earned through contribution and compliance with the law.

Ms Mahmood said: "Settlement is the right to live here permanently. It's one of the strongest rights we can give to people."

She added: "It's right that there are new minimum requirements. No criminality.

"Any criminal record will bar people from settlement. You have to have no debt, no NHS debt, no litigation debt."

The reforms will also require migrants to demonstrate their contribution to Britain, including through employment and National Insurance contributions, alongside meeting the relevant English-language requirements.

However, the Home Office is tonight having to reissue its migration reforms document after confusingly presenting forecasts for the number of people expected to settle in Britain.

Annex A of the Government Response to the Consultation puts the projected number of people who will settle under the plan at 1.9 million, up from 1.6 million in the equivalent document a year ago.

However, GB News understands that the 1.9 million figure is a new forecast made before the proposed reforms announced today are factored in.

The revised package also includes transitional arrangements for care workers who arrived in Britain in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

Around 400,000 care workers who have met their visa conditions and earned at least £25,000 will be able to apply for settlement after five years, rather than facing the proposed 15-year wait.

Those who have not met the requirements will be given a further five-year visa to work in the care sector before they can apply for settlement.

Defending the concession, Ms Mahmood told GB News: "Those that did what we asked them to do, they can settle at five.

"Those who haven't done that get a second chance to do what they first came to do."

The Home Secretary also said roughly half a million people would have to wait longer to qualify for settlement under the reforms.

Ms Mahmood concluded by defending Labour's wider record on migration.

She told GB News: "This Government and myself as Home Secretary, we've got net migration down 82 per cent."