Fahnbulleh clarifies support for migration reform after refusing to back 15-year settlement

The energy secretary, Miatta Fahnbulleh, has moved to clarify her position on migration reform after repeatedly refusing to say whether she backed a Home Office plan to extend the qualifying period for settlement in the UK to 15 years.

In an interview, she was asked several times whether she supported the proposal, which would increase the wait for indefinite leave to remain from five years. She did not give a direct answer. Instead, she said the Home Secretary was consulting on a package of reforms and would set out the government's final position. She said she supported reform of a broken immigration system and a system based on compassion and contribution, with people expected to integrate and contribute before becoming citizens. When pressed again, she said she absolutely supported plans to reform the immigration system, but she still did not explicitly endorse the 15-year period.

The proposals have caused unease in Labour. Angela Rayner has raised concerns about the retrospective nature of the change, saying it is not fair and changes the goalposts. Fahnbulleh's constituency website had also carried criticism of changing indefinite leave to remain, saying it threatened the process of building cohesion. The post was later taken down and her team said it was not an accurate representation of what she said. Government sources said ministers would not comment on individual parts of a policy still under consultation, with final decisions expected in autumn. There was also said to be possible room for transitional arrangements.

After the interview, Fahnbulleh was reported to have described the exchange as awkward and said one of her promises on entering politics was not to lie. She then issued a clarification on social media, saying she had not got it right and that she fully supported the Home Secretary and the government's position on migration reform. She repeated that people should have to make a contribution to the country to earn citizenship.

The policy would extend the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain from five years to 15 years, with some reports suggesting up to 20 years for some people. It would apply retrospectively, affecting people who came on health and social care visas in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Home Office concern is partly that workers on such visas could gain permanent status and then leave care jobs. The political difficulty is sharp: some Labour MPs in Leave-voting former Red Wall seats face pressure over immigration, while others on the left oppose the change. There were conflicting accounts over whether the Home Office had delayed its decision deadline, with one minister saying proposals would come shortly.