Andy Burnham hints at Shabana Mahmood migration U-turn as Cabinet revolt rocks Labour

Mr Burnham is under pressure to wholeheartedly back his Home Secretary amid a Cabinet revolt which threatens to engulf the wider Labour Party.

Speaking during a visit to Liverpool today, the Prime Minister said: “We’re in a position where we’ve been consulting on those reforms, and we will come forward with our decisions soon.

“But I strongly support the Home Secretary when she says that settlement is a right to be earned through contribution, and that will be the principle that guides our reforms.”

Mr Burnham was speaking as Labour MPs plot to revolt against plans to increase the five-year wait for claiming indefinite leave to remain by up to 10 years.

Ms Mahmood is now consulting on plans to increase the period from five to 15 years, backdated to apply to anyone arriving from 2021 onwards.

Around 2.2 million migrants held temporary visas with an existing five-year route to settlement at the end of 2024.

Hundreds of thousands arrived during the height of the so-called “Boriswave”.

However, Housing Secretary Angela Rayner has warned that changing settlement rules for migrants already in Britain would be “un-British”.

She said: “We shouldn’t rip up the rules halfway through – taking retrospective action on people who are taxpayers, who are making a contribution, who are part of our society looking after our most vulnerable.”

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh warned that “if we continually prolong the time people have to wait for settlement, we can also prolong the process of building cohesion”.

However, following further fury yesterday, the Peckham MP insisted she “100% back[s] Shabana Mahmood and everything she is trying to do”.

Dover & Deal MP Mike Tapp, who clashed with Ms Mahmood while serving as a Home Office Minister, is now calling on his former boss to “read the room”.

The ex-soldier said: “It’s important we do the right thing.

“If people have come to the country and genuinely worked in the sector, they shouldn’t be punished and should have the right to apply for settlement after five years, as they expected.”

Meanwhile, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is warning Ms Mahmood against buckling to Labour rebels.

She said: “On ILR, we do need to do something about indefinite leave to remain. It is an old system that doesn’t work for today’s world.

“Too many people came in under Conservative Governments who are now qualifying for it.

“We hold our hands up, we say we made a mistake, we know a mistake was made by previous Conservative administrations.”

However, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blames the Tories for letting in hundreds of thousands of people after the UK voted to leave the EU.

He believes ending indefinite leave to remain will save taxpayers £234billion.

Mr Farage said: “Who let in the first 200,000, and by the way, millions more that will qualify?

“Well, it was the Conservative Government and it was part of the Boriswave.”