CAMPAIGNERS slammed “cruel, racist and classist” government plans to change Britain’s visa policies, as new data showed they will leave 300,000 children in limbo over their settled status.

Data published by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) today showed that children make up a quarter of the 1.35m migrants already on a path to settlement who will be hit by the changes.

The IPPR said more than 300,000 children will see their wait time for the Home Office’s “earned status” extended by at least five years.

Changes to the current five-year wait time announced by the Home Office last year will bring the default delay to 10 years, and for anyone working in “below-graduate level jobs” to 15 years.

Although it will include exceptions for certain visa holders, many working in care and health industries will also be hit.

Seema Syeda, advocacy director for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said these new policies will “terrorise and instil precarity” in the lives of people waiting for a permanent status.

“The problem with these proposals is not simply that they are intended to apply retrospectively, but rather that they are intended to apply to anyone at all,” she told the Morning Star.

“This report highlights the cruelty of a government whose policies are tearing apart the very fabric of our communities.

“Everyone in the UK, no matter where they are born or how they arrived here, should have the right to remain permanently and build their lives, relationships and communities.

“This policy will further destabilise society and fan the flames of the far right.”

IPPR analysis of government data warned that plans put forward by ministers will mean that hundreds of thousands of children will grow up without a secure status.

Authors of the report warned this will limit their ability to plan for the future, affecting their access to higher education, student finance and opportunities to find stable employment.

They went on to say that parents will be locked out of essential services to support their families, including access to benefits.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has faced a rebellion from backbenchers over these plans. 

She told MPs at the home affairs select committee that having a settled status in Britain was a “privilege not a right.”