Britain could be “facing a catastrophe” if Labour fails to reform indefinite leave to remain, immigration expert Rob Bates has warned.
Speaking to GB News, the research director at the Centre for Migration Control said the long-term consequences of the surge in migration under the previous Conservative Government were now beginning to “crash land” on the welfare state.
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“If the Labour Government continues to drag its heels on its reforms to indefinite leave to remain, then we could be facing a catastrophe,” he said.
Mr Bates pointed to estimates of the potential cost of settlement, saying: “Even the Home Office’s conservative estimates suggest a £10billion, or up to several hundred billion pounds.”
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“This is something that simply a country’s books cannot afford.”
The immigration expert also criticised Labour MPs who have opposed attempts to tighten the settlement system.
“It’s really distressing to see the lackadaisical approach of the Labour frontbench and the howls of execration from the Labour backbench on any suggestion of actually, this is not a suitable future for our country,” Mr Bates said.
Mr Bates said that the fiscal and social costs of the “Boriswave” could become increasingly apparent as more migrants become eligible for settlement.
“The fiscal costs, the social costs of the Boriswave — that period of hyper mass migration — we saw where the skills threshold, the salary threshold for individuals coming into Britain, was dramatically reduced,” he said.
“That is now starting to crash land onto the beach of the British welfare state.”
Mr Bates said recent settlement figures indicated that some of those who arrived during the period of high migration were already beginning to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
“I think today’s settlement figures have started to indicate we have seen some of those individuals already making those applications,” he said.
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He also challenged the assumption that those being granted settlement would predominantly be highly paid workers.
“It is worth bearing in mind when it comes to individuals being given settlement, being given indefinite leave to remain, just one in five of those individuals are actually work main applicants,” Mr Bates said.
“Over half are family members and dependants, and actually one in seven are refugees.”
“So this idea that they’re all going to be economic dynamite and aren’t going to make use of Britain’s welfare state is pie in the sky thinking.”
Mr Bates also raised concerns over the continued scale of visa issuance, particularly through the student route.
He pointed to what he described as the “continued obsession with entry clearance”, saying there were around three-quarters of a million visas being issued, with student visas forming the largest component.
However, he warned that the student route was increasingly being used as a long-term migration pathway.
“We are seeing an increasing trend now of the student visa route being increasingly used not just actually to come and study at a world-beating university, but as a back door into Britain and a long-term migration route there,” he said.
Mr Bates claimed that more than 60 per cent of people arriving on student visas remained in Britain for more than three years after their studies ended.
“So there is huge, huge pressure that is being piled already on the British welfare state,” he said.
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