Angela Rayner hits out at Labour migrant visa crackdown ahead of conference
Ms Rayner said home secretary Shabana Mahmood's proposals were unfair because they "change the goalposts"
Angela Rayner has condemned Labour plans to make it harder for migrants to secure permanent residence in the UK.
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Speaking ahead of Labour's conference, Ms Rayner said home secretary Shabana Mahmood's proposals were unfair because they "change the goalposts".
The housing secretary said the plans would disproportionately hit foreign care workers who had “moved their lives here to look after our loved ones”.
Unveiled last year, Ms Mahmood's proposals would extend the wait time for migrants seeking to qualify for permanent residency from five to 10 years.
Foreign workers on health and social care visas would be forced to wait for 15 years.
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Ms Rayner told the Times she was concerned about moving the goalposts "years down the line" for those who arrived to the UK at the start of the decade expecting to qualify within the existing timeframe.
Her intervention marks a significant criticism by a senior cabinet minister of a policy inherited by Andy Burnham from his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer.
It's not the first time Ms Rayner has spoken publicly of her opposition to the policy.
In June, she said proposals to retrospectively change the rules for migrants already working in the UK would be "wrong".
Before becoming Prime Minister, Mr Burnham said he "understood" Ms Rayner's concerns and told reporters his party would "do well to listen to what Angela has to say".
Earlier this year around 40 Labour MPs signed a letter describing the rule changes as "un-British" and "moving the goalposts".
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy has defended Ms Mahmood's proposals, telling LBC's Matthew Wright that citizenship was "not something that is automatic; it is something that is earned".
She said the policy was about balancing the need to ensure public confidence in the immigration system while also "making sure that people who are here make a contribution and are recognised for that".
She continued: "It's about making sure that we have a grip on the numbers and that people can't come here illegally and that they're removed if they don't have a right to be here. It's about all of those things across the board.
"And I think she's right to have consulted on this measure for that reason."