UK's Labour plans tougher rules on migrants to halt hard right

Labour has put forward the changes as part of its strategy to claw back support among voters drawn to the anti-immigrant Reform UK party, whose popularity is soaring in opinion polls.

Confronting Reform, led by firebrand Nigel Farage, is the main theme of Labour's four-day gathering in Liverpool, northwest England.

Currently, migrants with family in Britain and who have lived in the country for five years qualify for "indefinite leave to remain" -- permanent residence -- as do those who have lived legally in the UK for 10 years on any type of visa.

Eligible applicants meeting those thresholds also earn the right to live, work and study in the UK and to apply for benefits and British citizenship.

But in a major policy shift, interior minister Shabana Mahmood told the Labour conference that migrants would have to make social security contributions, claim no benefits, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community in order to stay.

"You must earn the right," she said, adding the government will consult on the changes later this year.

The announcement comes after Reform, which is currently leading in national polls, vowed to get rid of "indefinite leave to remain" altogether, with migrants instead required to reapply for visas every five years.

This would apply to the hundreds of thousands of people who already have the right to remain.

- 'Be Bold' -

Embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday called Reform's plan "racist" and "immoral", saying it would "tear the country apart".

He is under pressure to convince elements of his centre-left party that he is the right leader to take on Reform, and has urged the party to unite for the "fight of our lives" against Farage, a keen admirer of US President Donald Trump.

Matthew Atkinson, a 19-year-old student, lamented that Starmer's response to Farage had been to make Labour "more like Reform".

"We need to encourage our representatives to be more bold in the beliefs and the values that we hold," the Labour member told AFP.

The battle over immigration comes against a difficult economic backdrop and with government finances constrained by stubborn inflation and high borrowing costs.

In her first speech to the conference as interior minister, Mahmood said migrants should learn English to a high standard and warned Labour members that "you may not always like what I do".

The qualified barrister, who was born in Britain to parents of Pakistani descent, said a failure to tackle irregular migration would mean that "working people will turn away from us... and seek solace in the false promises" of Farage.

She urged Labour to "fight for our belief in a greater Britain, not a littler England".

- 'End scapegoating' -

More than 100 organisations combined forces to write to Mahmood urging her "to end the scapegoating of migrants and performative policies that only cause harm".

Mahmood also said that Britain "must restore order and control" to its borders, with 32,000 undocumented migrants arriving on small boats in Britain from France so far this year.

Some 895 people arrived on UK shores on Saturday alone aboard 12 small boats, according to the British government, with a 125 crammed onto just one boat.

A number of fatalities over the weekend brought the death toll from illegal crossings to at least 27 since the beginning of the year, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

UK finance minister Rachel Reeves, facing a difficult budget in the coming weeks, said she "fundamentally" rejected claims by Reform and the main Conservative opposition that Britain's economy was broken and urged Labour members to "have faith".

Foreign minister Yvette Cooper told the gathering the foreign policy choice at the next general election, due in 2029, would be between Labour and a "chaotic right-wing ideology".

pdh-mhc/jkb/rmb