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 have been 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 a cost burdened by the British taxpayer.
Andy Burnham could be seeking to reverse some of Ms Mahmood’s planned reforms
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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.
Nigel Farage’s Home Affairs spokesman, 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.”
Mr Burnham said he backed the ‘broad thrust’ of Ms Mahmood’s reforms
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Ms Mahmood has insisted her proposed changes, which are expected to be in force by this autumn, were required to combat the “historically large numbers” which have crossed Britain’s borders since 2021 during the “Boriswave”.
But the Home Secretary’s reforms have been lambasted by senior figures, including Angela Rayner, who called the legislation “un-British”.
She claimed the new legislation left migrants “fearing for their future” while Whitehall attempted to “move the goalposts”.
“That would be not just bad policy but a breach of trust. The people already in the system, who made a huge investment, now fear for their future; they do not have stability and do not know what will happen,” Ms Rayner said.
Mr Burnham, according to one source close to the MP, is on track to reassess whether the changes should impact individuals retrospectively.
“He sees it as a matter of fairness and will not want to impose the changes retrospectively,” an insider said.
But the claim dismissed the claim as “speculation” while the “King of the North” is still weighing up his options.
In the days ahead of the by-election last week, Mr Burnham said he supported the “broad thrust” of her migration crackdown.
