Labour Proposes Ten-Year Settlement Rule

At Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Sir Keir Starmer framed the next election as a “fight for the soul of the country” and launched a sustained attack on Nigel Farage, accusing him of peddling grievance politics. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood proposed raising the residency period before settlement rights to ten years, offering exemptions for English speakers, volunteers or net economic contributors. Mahmood and other ministers said the changes would not be applied retrospectively. The package is explicitly pitched as a bid to blunt Reform UK and Nigel Farage’s calls to scrap settled status. Lawyers, campaigners and commentators warned the proposals lack substantive detail and raised legal and practical doubts about enforceability.