The UK's Home Secretary (Interior Minister) Shabana Mahmood announced this week that she would be reinstating, with immediate effect, the UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS). The scheme was suspended in December 2024.

Hundreds are expected to arrive via the reopened scheme, with arrivals via UKRS expected to increase into the "low thousands," as the numbers of people arriving irregularly drop, reported the BBC citing a source at the Home Office.

Exact numbers have not yet been announced, or exactly who will be eligible for the UKRS, but three new sponsorship routes are expected to open, reported the BBC, with around 25 percent of those arriving being Afghan women and girls and Palestinians.

The new sponsorship routes are expected to involve community groups and universities and companies, which can apply to host refugees from next year. A cap will be set each year for the numbers who can arrive, promised the Home Office.

Those arriving on these safe and legal routes will then be put on a five-year path to citizenship, added the BBC.

Under previous safe routes, including the Afghan resettlement scheme, more than 39,000 Afghans arrived in the UK up until July 2025, when the government announced that the schemes were closed to new applicants or had been discontinued. A refugee family resettlement scheme was also paused last September (2025).

New rules?

In a speech at the Labour Party's annual conference in Liverpool, Home Secretary Mahmood said that she had come under pressure to reconsider her proposition regarding integration for migrants and visa rules, stating that "some have said elements of these reforms are not fair."

She added the government would reconsider its current approach and "come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally and fairness to British citizens across this country."

Mahmood told Labour delegates at the conference: "As we restore control and fairness to our asylum system, we must do the same for legal migration, too" while equally stressing that residency must still be "earned by those who have shown a consistent commitment to this country."

Mahmood has come under significant pressure to change the plans for some time even from within the ranks of the Labour, with some senior MPs criticising her scheme as a departure from Britain's long-standing tradition of welcoming people who contribute positively to society.

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The importance of permanent residency

Mahmood had suggested taking the timeframe for obtaining indefinite leave to remain in the UK — or permanent residency — up from the current framework of five years to ten years for most foreigners coming to Britain.

She even went further and proposed taking that timeframe up to 15 years for people who had come to Britain under health and social care visas.

Obtaining indefinite leave to remain in the UK gives foreign nationals the right to live and work in the country without restrictions. It is also the final step before being awarded British citizenship for those who seek to obtain it.

Mahmood said her office would now come up with a policy that was fair both to foreign workers who "came here legally" and to British citizens; however, that announcement is yet to be turned into tangible action. 

The Home Office said that there is no official change yet on the previously charted course and that no final decision had been made on any changes to current immigration rules.

The Home Office added that Mahmood was merely setting out principles to guide her in her party conference speech.

Battle of words between Mahmood and Rayner

Earlier in the year, Mahmood's plan drew criticism from Labour MP Angela Rayner among others.

Rayner said in an interview with the daily newspaper The Times that Mahmood wanted to "change the goalposts," adding that this behavior was "un-British."

Rayner, who since her comments has returned to the cabinet and government and has been reappointed the UK's Housing Secretary (following her resignation from the same post in September 2025 due to a tax issue, from which she was later cleared), described any potential changes to current laws as "very disruptive." 

Similar sentiments were also echoed by trade union leaders, including Andrea Egan, general secretary of Unison, the largest public service trade union in the country,

Egan said the changes were unfair to care workers coming to the UK from overseas, saying they effectively penalised people moving to Britain as part of fully legal migration schemes.

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Criticism from the right

Mahmood's speech also garnered reactions from the opposition, with a spokesperson for the Conservative Party saying that she had "caved in to pressure from Angela Rayner and her open borders MPs."

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp meanwhile described Mahmood's statement as "a slap in the face to British taxpayers."

"They will have to subsidise low-skilled, low-wage migrants, who the Government admit will cost at least 10 billion pounds [around 11.6 billion euros]," he added.

The Conservative Party, which was at the helm for 14 years from 2010 to 2024, has come under pressure to adopt increasingly anti-migrant positions, as the far-right in the UK continues to garner support for its stringent anti-migrant policy proposals.

Many voters in Britain who traditionally had voted for the Conservatives have shifted their alliances to parties like Reform UK or Restore Britain, which pursue a more nationalist agenda.

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Prime Minister Burnham on the fence

Prime Minister Andy Burnham meanwhile explained his position in an interview with LBC radio, saying that there was no spat or schism between Mahmood and Rayner, adding that such reform would have to simply "strike the right balance."

He said that the current debate reflect the need for a "consultation."

"[T]here's a range of views that have gone into that consultation, so we're in the process now of looking at that."

However, before becoming prime minister earlier this year, Burnham said he could relate to Rayner's criticisms regarding the proposed changes to migrant visas, saying that Labour "would do well to listen to what Angela has to say."

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