Kemi Badenoch has announced a major policy shift, proposing that immigrants must wait at least 15 years before becoming eligible for British citizenship.
As part of her first major policy move as Conservative Party leader, Badenoch outlined plans to tighten immigration laws by extending the period before migrants can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) from five to ten years. She also stated that individuals who claim benefits, access social housing, or have criminal records would be barred from permanently settling in the UK.
“I want to reduce immigration and make living here actually mean something,” Badenoch said in a video shared on her X (formerly Twitter) account. “We need to change the way our immigration system works.”
Key aspects of the proposal include:
1. Increasing the residency requirement for ILR applications from five to ten years.
2. Requiring applicants to be net contributors with a high salary, especially if they want to bring family members.
3. Banning individuals with criminal records from obtaining ILR.
4. Extending the waiting period for a British passport from 12 months to five years after ILR approval, making it a minimum of 15 years before an immigrant can apply for citizenship.
5. Permanently banning individuals who enter the UK illegally or overstay their visas from ever obtaining leave to remain or a British passport.
Under the current system, most migrants can apply for ILR after five years of working in the UK, with some visa categories allowing applications in as little as two or three years. ILR grants individuals the right to live, work, and study in the UK indefinitely, and after 12 months, they can apply for citizenship.
The new Conservative proposal triples the minimum time required to obtain citizenship, from six years to 15. The party also seeks to apply these changes retroactively to 2021 by amending the upcoming Border Security, Asylum, and Immigration Bill, which is set for parliamentary debate next week.
Badenoch also vowed to crack down on welfare access for immigrants. While most migrants on work visas, asylum seekers, and those in the UK illegally are already barred from claiming state benefits under the “no recourse to public funds” policy, she noted that some restrictions had been lifted. She argued that the current system has become a “conveyor belt” to citizenship, allowing too many people to settle in the UK too quickly, thereby straining public services.
“We need to ensure that people coming here have a real, meaningful connection to the UK—no criminal records, they should be net contributors to the economy, not relying on benefits, but people who care about our country and our communities,” she said, as quoted by the BBC.
However, Badenoch did not specify how much the proposed policy would reduce migration numbers.
