Andy Burnham’s plan to U-turn on Shabana Mahmood’s immigration reforms could “cost British families £1,800 each”, a Reform UK analysis has revealed.
The left-leaning Makerfield MP is said to be eyeing up the reversal of some of the Home Secretary’s more hard-line policies if he is successful in his bid to move into No10.
Last November, Ms Mahmood set out her immigration overhaul with a sweeping set of reforms.
Under current legislation, Ms Mahmood’s plans, which are widely sniffed at by a large number of her left-leaning backbenchers, migrants will have to wait longer for indefinite leave to remain (ILR).
Mr Burnham has already hit out at the choice to apply the reforms retrospectively, claiming that it would leave migrants “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”.
However, Ms Mahmood has remained in the pool of Mr Burnham’s potential candidates for Home Secretary while the Birmingham Ladywood MP is keen to stay in post.
Earlier this year, more than 100 rebels wrote to the Home Secretary urging her to ditch the overhaul altogether.
But a potential turnaround on this plan could come at the cost burdened by the British taxpayer.
Reform UK analysis has revealed that reducing the minimum time to acquire ILR to five years would come with the hefty price tag of £50million over the course of the migrants’ lifetimes.
Reform UK’s Shadow Home Secretary, Zia Yusuf, said: “Andy Burnham is already reported to be ready to U-turn on Shabana Mahmood’s reforms to Indefinite Leave to Remain.
“This will accelerate the path for millions of unskilled migrants from the Boriswave to get lifetime access to our welfare state. This U-turn alone will cost every household in Britain £1,800.
“The cost of the Boriswave of 4.8 million migrants brought in under the Tories will be several times that. Burnham is fast-tracking Britain to bankruptcy.”
