Should the UK have tougher immigration laws?
The UK government under Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has introduced multiple changes to immigration rules in 2026. These include raising the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain from five to ten years for most migrants, 15 years for health and social care workers, granting refugees 30 months of permission instead of five years with active reviews, higher English language requirements, reduced eligible occupations for skilled worker visas, and ending overseas recruitment for social care. Net migration has fallen but remains a major political issue with ongoing consultations and further reforms expected later in 2026.
5 Opinions
Some slightly tougher restrictions, yes, but continue recruiting health workers from abroad. As the influx of immigrants is dropping, changing the restrictions must be done gently, or we could harm our NHS, and not have enough workers doing the jobs we rely on them for.
Eh. Very much a Yes to some and No to other parts of this. Yes, corporate Britain’s addiction to cheap labour from abroad has suppressed wages and killed domestic training. But pulling the plug overnight across the whole economy is suicide. You can’t go cold turkey on foreign labour without massive state backed domestic training and industrial investment first. It has to become progressively more strict over time, not an immediate "Yes it needs to be tougher right now"
Yes although possibly not tougher laws because there are people who will genuinely contribute to society. Perhaps we need to get tougher on the poor levels of management in the FCDO and Border Control.
Changing ILR from five to ten years will mess up a lot of people's lives, including productive EU citizens who happened to be caught in the UK when Brexit occurred. There is also a lack of social care workers, and British people clearly aren't lining up to change seniors' nappies, so ending recruitment of those who are willing to do tough jobs makes no sense.
Yes, there should be a maximum number of immigrants set per year. End all goofy visas, check if these on temporary visas left, with central registry of overstaying - to block possibility of work.