The Battle Over Indefinite Leave to Remain: Labour, Conservatives, and Reform Compared
Labour, the Conservatives, and Reform UK have all announced plans to tighten the rules around Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). On the surface, they’re united by a single goal — reducing net migration. But dig deeper, and the differences are huge.
What Is Indefinite Leave to Remain?
Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), sometimes called “settlement” or “settled status,” is a form of UK immigration status that allows someone to live, work, and study in Britain indefinitely. ILR holders can access public services like the NHS and often use it as a pathway to British citizenship.
Most applicants qualify after five years of residence on an eligible visa, such as work routes or family visas. Others obtain ILR through protection or long residence routes. Many go on to apply for citizenship, but not all.
Why ILR Is Controversial Now
Post-Brexit immigration surged, particularly under Boris Johnson — the so-called “Boris wave.” Starting next year, a large cohort of migrants will hit their five-year qualifying period and become eligible for ILR, turning temporary stays into permanent settlement.
This is on top of the large numbers of EU citizens who received settled status under the Withdrawal Agreement. The result? ILR holders are projected to grow from around 1 million today to over 4 million in the next few years.
Labour’s Plan: Slower, Stricter, but Familiar
Labour doesn’t plan to scrap ILR, but they would tighten eligibility and extend the qualifying period from five to ten years. Applicants would need:
- A clean criminal record (excluding minor offences like traffic violations)
- To demonstrate English language proficiency
- To pass more rigorous residency checks
People in critical sectors like the NHS would be fast-tracked. Labour’s approach broadly aligns with international norms and is designed to slow the flow into settlement without tearing up the existing system.
Reform’s Plan: Abolish ILR, Create a Permanent Temporary Class
Reform UK goes much further. They propose to abolish Indefinite Leave to Remain altogether, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa.
Under their model:
- Current ILR holders would lose their settled status over time and be forced to reapply under new criteria.
- Renewal would depend on meeting higher salary thresholds, stricter English requirements, and limits on dependents.
- The qualifying period for citizenship would increase from 5 to 7 years.
In short: ILR would become a temporary privilege, not a permanent right. People living here, paying taxes, could lose their right to live here over night. This is the same as their approach to leaving the ECHR – universal rights would be replaced by privileges that the Government can grant and withhold.
The obvious flaw is administrative. Every existing ILR holder would have to reapply every five years, creating a tidal wave of paperwork for a Home Office that already struggles with delays. For a party promising to slash the civil service, it’s a recipe for chaos.
Legally, the plan is explosive: retrospectively changing ILR rights would almost certainly be challenged in court, and it would breach the UK–EU Withdrawal Agreement — potentially jeopardising the rights of Britons living in the EU. In other words, expect sunburnt pensioners in Benidorm to start heading home.
Conservative Plan: Harder to Qualify, Not Retroactive (Yet)
The Conservative Party, particularly under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership, also wants to make ILR harder to get. Their policy paper “Rebuilding Trust” proposes:
- Extending the qualification period to 10 years
- Excluding migrants who have claimed benefits or housing support during their visa stay
- Requiring a clean criminal record for applicants
Unlike Reform, this doesn’t directly strip ILR from current holders, but it creates a tougher future regime. It also introduces “net contribution” tests, dividing ILR holders into two groups: those who qualified under the old rules and those under stricter new ones. But remember, there are plenty of people who have worked here for decades, including NHS workers and retirees who would fall foul of these rules. It is less likely that existing British residents would be deported under these rules, but not impossible. Like Reform they plan to leave the ECHR and replace rights with privildeges the Government grants and withholds.
Impact on Existing ILR Holders
- Labour would leave existing ILR untouched but make it harder and slower for future applicants.
- Conservatives would preserve current ILR but tighten pathways for future citizenship and settlement.
- Reform UK would abolish ILR over time, forcing millions to reapply every five years under tougher conditions, creating uncertainty for families, workers, and communities.
The Bottom Line
All three parties want to reduce immigration, but they’re not offering the same medicine:
- Labour: incremental tightening, slower progression, targeted fast-tracks.
- Conservatives: longer qualification and tougher eligibility, future-focused.
- Reform: a radical overhaul, turning permanent settlement into rolling probation.
The stakes are high — for migrants, for the Home Office, and for Britain’s international obligations.
Between now and election time, expect Farages plan to change multiple times depending on the mood of his flock.
If he gets elected, and realises he can’t do what he set out to do (like he knew all along), it will be everyone elses fault, but not his, definitely not his. The courts, the EU, lefties, the media, his own economic advises, the Good Friday Agreement, the woke brigade, international law, Gary Neville, and immigrants hiding from UK ICE militia better than a lot of his supporters hide from the ‘provy woman’.
I mean its a well told story, a story as old as… well… Brexit.
Each time his plans fail he will offer another simplistic solution which will require him to take more power, remove more rights, dismantle more of democracy in the name of the will of the people. And when he fails utterly the people who put him to power will push the idea that it was not his failure, but the failure of democracy that is the problem…. and what we need is a dictator to get things done….
I suspect if elected he would resign shortly after, just like he did with the Brexit Party. I’ve said it before, he’s a rabble rouser, he has no real interest in being PM. He is rarely in parliament, and has never held a single surgery in his own constituency. He has no solutions, just soundbites, he has no intention in participating in the nitty gritty side of politics, he’d rather be making money via his other ventures and media appearances.
I still believe reform have no chance in the next election, but if they somehow manage to win it would be an utter disaster for the country. They have no MP’s, in order to get them they need people to stand at election time, these people are probably going to be far right, many with extremist views and we’ve already seen what some Reform councillors get up to. Imagine the house of commons fully of politically inexperienced right wingers? A sitting government that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow and bunch of MP’s that would be sitting ducks for outside influence.
Sadly this rhetoric has already impacted my family. My daughter’s partner has indefinite leave to remain. He has worked in the UK for nearly twenty years. Has a 15 year old son and has his own, successful business. He told me last week that for the first time he no longer feels welcome and is planning to leave the UK in the next 4-5 years. Fortunately my daughter has a Spanish passport so could make the move with him relatively easily. How sad that someone who felt welcomed and planned to stay no longer feels that way. Rhetorical and political slogans does have real world consequences.
Sorry to hear that Nigel, I have a friend who feels the same way, although is a British citizen so leaving the country is not an option. I really feel for people directly effected by this. The past 10 years have shown the dark side of this country.
That’s awful, but it’s not the first time I have heard a story like that recently. The Tommy Robinson march seemed to be a turning point