‘Stop history from repeating itself’: Government warned of Windrush-level scandal and risk to NHS if earned settlement proposals are enacted

A cross-party group of MPs and civil society organisations have urged the Government to drop its earned settlement proposals and “stop history from repeating itself” by risking a similar scandal to Windrush, in a joint letter to the Home Secretary and Health Secretary.The correspondence, which was coordinated by the charity Work Rights Centre and sent on Thursday, also told Shabana Mahmood and Yvette Cooper that the changes would “increase workforce instability in the health and care sector – which in turn risks worsening the health and wellbeing of everyone in the UK.”It warned the earned settlement proposals, which include an “unfair” move to double the baseline qualifying period for Indefinite Leave to Remain to ten years and triple it to fifteen years for care workers, as well as “punitive” retrospective application, are an iteration of Windrush era policies.“Ultimately, these proposals are justified by targeting those migrant workers who came in this country’s time of need during the COVID-19 pandemic, much like the Windrush generation answered the call at the birth of the NHS,” the letter said.Home Secretary Mahmood first proposed radical changes of the routes to settlement in November 2025, and is expected to announce the finalised policy this autumn.

The 17 signatories, which include Labour MPs Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Diane Abbott, Clive Lewis and Rachael Maskell, added “the health and care sector is already dangerously under-staffed”, with job vacancies a “persistent issue across the NHS” – particularly for radiographers.NHS England, for example, faces a vacancy rate of 6.7% in comparison with the UK vacancy rate of 2.1%, as reported by the Office for National Statistics.“Put simply: the Government will be unable to meet waiting list reduction targets or cancer treatment targets without retaining and growing the pool of professionals,” said the signatories, which included the Society of Radiographers, a trade union and professional body, and the charity Care England.The letter asserts that the proposals risk exacerbating existing recruitment and retention challenges across the health and care sector by increasing the risks of family separation.The adult social care sector remains “structurally reliant” on international recruitment, the signatories added, so “unmet need” would increase without these workers.The joint letter, whose other signatories included Liberal Democrat, Green, Your Party and Scottish National Party MPs as well as Labour peer Baroness Lister and charity Action for Race Equality, also called on the Government to honour its commitment to the Windrush generation and stop these proposals.It cited Mahmood’s statement on Windrush in 2025 that “we can and must do everything in our power to right this historic wrong,” arguing that the same wrong persists, and the same groups are being targeted by the current immigration proposals.The correspondence urged the Government to implement the recommendations from the 2020 Lessons Learned from Windrush review by Wendy Williams. It also called for delayed implementation of the immigration reforms until Impact Assessments are scrutinised and for the Government to rule out retrospective application of new rules to individuals and to migrant families already in the UK.The letter added that if the government proceeds with the earned settlement proposals, it would be “essential that all workers across the health and care sector and their dependents are exempt from any extension to the settlement period.”

It followed a parliamentary event on the topic in September organised by the Work Rights Centre and hosted by Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill.Full list of signatories:Work Rights CentreCare EnglandSociety of RadiographersAction for Race EqualityBell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton HillDiane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke NewingtonClive Lewis is the Labour MP for Norwich SouthRachael Maskell is the Labour (Co-op) MP for York CentralBaroness Lister of Burtersett CBE, member of the House of Lords.Manuela Perteghella, Liberal Democrat MP for Stratford-on-AvonSeamus Logan is the Scottish National Party MP for Aberdeenshire North and Moray EastZarah Sultana, Your Party MP for Coventry SouthSiân Berry, Green Party MP for Brighton PavilionAdrian Ramsay, Green Party MP for Waveney ValleyDr Ellie Chowns, Green Party MP for North HerefordshireHannah Spencer, Green Party MP for Gorton and DentonCarla Denyer, Green Party MP for Bristol CentralWork Rights Centre is a registered charity dedicated to ending in-work poverty. Our multilingual team helps migrants and disadvantaged Britons to access employment justice and improve their social mobility.

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