Migrants have to be fluent in English to be able to work and stay in UK under new proposals
8 May 2025, 00:19
Migrants may have to learn a higher standard of English to work in the UK and wait for longer before they can settle permanently, reports have suggested.
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An immigration White Paper due to be published next week is expected to set out the reforms.
It is the first sign of Sir Keir Starmer getting tougher on migration in the wake of Labour's local election losses to Reform UK.
Among the strict new measures under consideration is raising English language proficiency required by migrants applying for a UK work visa, according to The Times.
Under the reforms, they would be required to have the equivalent of a foreign language A-level standard of English.
The current standard required is equivalent to the English as a foreign language GCSE, the newspaper said.
According to the home office, it means migrants have to be able to express themselves “fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions” and to speak English “flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes”.
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Migrants will also be required to know how to produce well-structured, clear and detailed text related to complex subjects.
Government sources told the newspaper that the white paper will contains proposals to “take tighter control to deliver a system that is controlled, selective and fair”.
Migrants attempting to come to the UK will be told that “if you want to come here, you must contribute and integrate”, a government source told the Times.
Elsewhere, the Financial Times (FT) reported that migrants will be required to wait as long as 10 years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Most migrants who come to Britain on time-limited work visas can currently make an application for indefinite leave to remain after five years.
This paves the way for them to apply for benefits and the path towards UK citizenship.
The wait could be extended to 10 years if migrants have spent too much time outside the UK since arriving or if there are questions about their financial status, the FT said.
Similar plans to extend the waiting period for indefinite leave to remain were set out by the Conservatives on Tuesday.
Both the Tories' "Deportation Bill" and Labour's plans to toughen its migration response come as both parties aim to win back voters from Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
The party, which has positioned itself as tough on migration, won hundreds of local council seats and wrested control of the Runcorn and Helsby parliamentary constituency from Labour on May 1.
