Joshua NevettPolitical reporter
Watch: Home secretary outlines conditions for indefinite leave to remain in UK
Migrants will have to prove they are contributing to society to earn the right to remain in the UK, the home secretary has said.
In her speech to the Labour conference, Shabana Mahmood outlined a series of new conditions migrants have to meet to qualify for indefinite leave to remain.
Under the proposals, legal migrants will have to learn English to a high standard, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community to be granted permanent settlement status.
Labour says the policy draws a clear dividing line between the government and Reform UK, which says it would abolish indefinite leave to remain.
The main theme of Labour’s conference is taking the fight to Reform UK, which is leading in UK-wide national opinion polls.
In her first conference speech as home secretary, Mahmood said the story of Britain’s progress as an “open, tolerant, generous place” had become contested.
Mahmood said her broad definition of patriotism was “turning into something smaller, something more like ethno-nationalism”.
To stop this, she said, the Labour government had to “understand why so many people feel the country doesn’t work for them”.
“If we do not rise to this challenge, our vision of an open, tolerant, generous country will wither,” Mahmood said.
She said working-class communities would turn away from Labour “and seek solace in the false promises” of Farage’s party.
She added that challenge was not just winning the next general election, but keeping the country together and fighting for “our belief in a greater Britain, not a littler England”.
The rise in the number of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats and the scale of immigration to the UK in recent years were prominent themes in her speech.
Mahmood promised to “do whatever it t
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