{"id":4440,"date":"2026-09-16T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T09:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/16\/politics-home-unison-head-hits-out-at-wall-of-silence-from-shabana-mahmood-over-immigration-changes\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T09:52:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T09:52:33","slug":"politics-home-unison-head-hits-out-at-wall-of-silence-from-shabana-mahmood-over-immigration-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/16\/politics-home-unison-head-hits-out-at-wall-of-silence-from-shabana-mahmood-over-immigration-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Politics Home | Unison Head Hits Out At \u201cWall Of Silence\u201d From Shabana Mahmood Over Immigration Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Andrea Egan addressing an anti-racism rally in March 2023. Then president of Unison, she has since become general secretary (Mark Kerrison\/Alamy Live News)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Exclusive: Unison general secretary Andrea Egan has accused Shabana Mahmood of putting up a \u201cwall of silence\u201d by refusing to meet with the union raising concerns over immigration reforms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In a forthcoming interview with The House magazine, the head of Labour-affiliated Unison \u2013 the biggest trade union in Britain \u2013\u00a0also said Mahmood being \u201cleft in position\u201d as Home Secretary was a \u201cdisappointment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mahmood remained as Home Secretary when Andy Burnham succeeded Keir Starmer in No 10,\u00a0disappointing\u00a0some on the left of the Labour Party and trade unions which represent migrant workers affected by the proposed changes.<\/p>\n

Egan said: \u201cThat was one of my disappointments \u2013 that Shabana Mahmood was left in position, simply because of her position on the migrant workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs yet, there’s just a wall of silence at the moment. I think that’s absolutely unacceptable because they make these big announcements, and what they’ve got is these hundreds of thousands of workers who are just being left on a thread at the minute, wondering where their futures lie and what’s going to happen to them and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked whether there had been any engagement with Mahmood, the Unison general secretary replied: \u201cNothing. She’s not even answered requests for a meeting. I think that’s really disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the TUC Congress gathering of unions this week, the government was urged to rethink proposals critics say would drive away overseas workers needed in critical public service roles in the UK.<\/p>\n

Under the changes, the standard wait to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) would increase from five to 10 years, while those on health and social care visas would face a 15-year wait before receiving settled status.<\/p>\n

They would impact people already living in the UK but not those who have been granted settlement.<\/p>\n

Only with ILR do those who have come to the UK gain the right to live, work and study indefinitely in the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking as a backbencher earlier this year, Angela Rayner \u2013\u00a0who is now back in Cabinet \u2013 called the changes \u201cun-British\u201d. Burnham at the time said the party \u201cwould do well to listen to what Angela has to say\u201d.<\/p>\n

A Home Office spokesperson said:\u00a0\u201cLast November, we\u00a0set out\u00a0reforms to\u00a0double\u00a0the standard qualifying period for settlement to 10 years for most migrants, with shorter routes for those\u00a0who\u00a0contribute\u00a0the\u00a0most to\u00a0the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the\u00a0proposals,\u00a0key\u00a0public service workers, including doctors and nurses, may settle after five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cA consultation on elements of those reforms has now closed, and we will set out our response in due course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mahmood declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Speaking to MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee about the reforms on Tuesday, the Home Secretary said:\u00a0“We’re trying to strike the right balance between our responsibilities to people who have come here to work, our recognition of the failures we inherited as a government, and also our need to do right by the people who are already here, who pay for the systems that we all rely on.”<\/p>\n

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Andrea Egan addressing an anti-racism rally in March 2023. Then president of Unison, she has since become general secretary (Mark Kerrison\/Alamy Live News) 3 min read23 min Exclusive: Unison general secretary Andrea Egan has accused Shabana Mahmood of putting up a \u201cwall of silence\u201d by refusing to meet with the union […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartinvestingschronicle.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}