Kemi Badenoch has pledged to revoke settlement rights granted under Labour’s revised immigration rules if migrants subsequently take more from the state than they contribute, making continued financial contribution a condition of retaining permission to live in Britain.

The Conservative leader said a future Tory government would review indefinite leave to remain awarded under Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s reforms. Her proposal goes beyond restricting benefits: it would put previously granted residency status at risk.

“Contribution should be something continuous, not something you do as a quick fix to gaining long-term residency and the right to claim benefits for the rest of your life,” Badenoch said.

Mahmood’s revised plans would allow up to 300,000 foreign care workers to retain a five-year route to settlement. They are among 1.4 million migrants who would be allowed to settle after five years rather than the 15 years originally proposed by the Home Office last year.

Badenoch cited Home Office calculations which she said put the cost of granting settlement to 350,000 social care workers at almost £10bn. That figure concerns a different number of workers from the exemption announced. The department’s warning covered lifetime fiscal effects, including lower tax receipts and spending on health, education and other services, rather than benefits alone.

The dispute turns partly on competing definitions of fairness. Badenoch backed Mahmood’s earlier description of five-year settlement for this cohort as “an affront to fairness”. Angela Rayner, the Communities Secretary, opposed retrospectively extending settlement waits as “un-British” and “unfair”. More than 100 Labour backbenchers and major unions also opposed the reforms.

Labour says about 500,000 migrants would still face longer waits, saving billions of pounds. They include lower-skilled workers such as butchers and chefs, and an estimated 100,000 care workers who failed to meet visa conditions and would wait 10 years rather than five.

Badenoch accused Andy Burnham of weakening the plans to appease backbenchers and unite the Left before a general election. That was her account of the political motivation, not an established explanation.

She also acknowledged Conservative mistakes in opening the care-worker route too widely after the pandemic, while crediting Tory policies for the recent fall in overall immigration.

The Conservatives propose at least 10 years before settlement and another five before citizenship, with no benefits or social housing for non-citizens. They also favour higher work-visa salary requirements, an annual immigration cap and deportation for people arriving illegally.

The revocation pledge leaves a consequential detail unspecified: how continuing net contribution would be measured, and over what period.