Speeches by Mahmood.

“I would dispute that net migration is at very low levels. It is still really quite high. It has had a big drop from the very large increases that you saw under the previous Administration, but it is still comfortably over 200,000, which is still quite high on any measure. When I first came into Parliament, back in the …”

“I think that was the formal notification.”

“Yes, and I understand that, but I repeat that under the previous Government there was an expected market shortage for social care workers of between 6,000 and 40,000. That is quite a big range, which tells you that there is unreliability in the understanding of exactly what the needs of that part of the workforce are. …”

“Yes, it is when you apply.”

“Evidence has already been given to the Committee about what was said in front of me on 8 October—”

“Let me finish my point, please, Mr Kohler. If the chief constable of West Midlands police asserts, “I cannot possibly put this event on safely. Here are the risks,” I can’t override that and say, “I don’t believe those risks exist.””

“The reforms for settlement are precipitated by the issues in relation to the scale and pace of recent migration into the country. Between 2021 and 2024, net migration stood at 2.6 million people, which means that around one in every 30 people in this country today arrived in those four years. We have seen particular is…”

“I would not say it is deterrence. There is a particular issue where we have seen migration into the country on a very large scale—much more than was expected—and of a very different nature to what we have had before, both in terms of the skills range and the number of dependants. Something like 50% of the care work num…”

“We have already announced that we want to go from a baseline five-year qualifying period to 10 years, which we are not consulting on. We have a relatively generous welfare state. Five years is actually quite a short period before people can be permanently settled in the country, with all the benefits that brings. It is…”

“Let me finish. That is why I have asked Andy Cooke to look at two things: first, what exactly happened in relation to West Midlands police, but also to advise further on what we do with safety advisory groups going forward. As this event has shown, when not done properly, these things can have big impacts for community…”

“Well, we are talking about a system of economic migration, so I think it would be odd to say that we are not looking at earnings. You are looking for people to come and work, and the intention is that they can support themselves. You are not looking to bring in people who will ultimately require assistance from the wel…”

“In the consultation, we ask a specific question on transitional arrangements. Obviously, there are going to be knock-on impacts from any of these changes. On the mandatory economic contribution, we are looking at just the threshold for paying national insurance contributions: it is quite low, actually. One of the criti…”

“You are only bringing in workers to benefit your economy, right? Of course you would want to look at earnings in that context; I do not think there is anything wrong with that. Successive Governments have made the argument for wanting this country to be able to attract the brightest and the best. It would be odd if we …”

“It is inconceivable that they wouldn’t have been aware at all. Obviously, it would be for them to explain what exactly they knew and when, but even if you just go by the information that was publicly available, in which you could see the big growths in net migration, I think it became very clear very quickly that there…”

“Again, we have published the consultation. There has been some helpful discussion around whether you look purely at individuals’ earnings or at household income potentially. It is not unusual, in our arrangements, to consider the income of a whole household as opposed to just one or two individuals within it. Again, th…”

“What I have asked for are policy proposals to try to meet the challenge we have. What we set out in the consultation is a new way of thinking about how settlement is earned in this country, how we might reward the behaviours we want to see, and how we add on more time for people if, for example, they end up accessing b…”

“The thing that I think would be naive is to imagine you could go from zero to thousands immediately; that is why—”

“The equality impact assessment is a living document, so the policy is not yet finalised and will change based on the policy choices that are made. It would not be unusual for there to be bigger impacts on some groups than others. The question—and the legal obligation—is whether they are proportionate in order to meet t…”

“Because within those forces, you will have local police areas that are designed to be community facing. The move to the smaller number of regional forces is about being able to meet—”

“As I say, these are, on any measure, very significant reforms and will take time to deliver. Obviously, I have to go out and win an argument, and we will need to legislate, so there will be appropriate moments, as we are seeking to pass legislation here, to be talking to Opposition parties as well—I will obviously alwa…”