Andy Burnham just lost a second Cabinet minister over Labour's migration crackdown

Miatta Fahnbulleh just broke ranks on her own government's flagship migration policy.

She's the Energy Secretary. And she's just publicly disagreed with Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, over plans to make migrants wait longer to settle in the UK.

Here's what she wrote, in a post to her Peckham constituents about a day ago. She said she wants, quote "a much stronger focus on integration."

Then she went further.

She said quote "we can also prolong the process of building cohesion."

So think about what that actually means. A serving Cabinet minister is saying the government's own flagship immigration policy might be making integration worse. Not better.

Now, some context on that post. It wasn't a speech. It was a write-up by Fahnbulleh's team of a town hall meeting she did about a month ago, posted on her constituency website. Allies of hers told the Telegraph it had been poorly paraphrased and would be corrected. We couldn't check that ourselves, because the Telegraph's own report wasn't accessible to us.

So what's the policy she's actually criticising?

Shabana Mahmood wants to raise the standard wait for settlement — that's indefinite leave to remain — from five years to a ten-year baseline for most people. There's also a separate, longer wait of 15 years. But that one only applies to workers in lower-skilled roles. That includes a lot of care workers.

The government opened a consultation on all this almost eleven months ago, back in November last year. It closed in February. And as of a day ago, the official page still said it was analysing the responses.

Now here's a number that shows why this fight matters. Home Office figures show 199,628 people were granted settlement in the year to June this year. That's up 24% on the year before. It's the highest total since 2011.

And Fahnbulleh isn't on her own here.

Angela Rayner, the Housing Secretary, criticised the same plan before Labour's party conference. She said it would change the goalposts for migrants already living and working here — especially care workers.

And at that same conference, Mahmood herself hinted she might soften the whole thing. She said she'd come to a position that balances fairness.

So two senior ministers have broken cover on the same policy. And the minister in charge of it is already talking like she might back down.

It doesn't stop there either. Mahmood is also facing pushback from more than 100 of her own MPs, from trade unions, and from voters.

A Home Office statement defended the plan. It said: "This government has announced reforms that mean settlement must be earned and not automatic. We are currently considering responses to our consultation on elements of these reforms." Mahmood herself hasn't responded directly to what Fahnbulleh said.

There is a way to shorten the wait, under the current proposals. Migrants can qualify sooner by earning a higher salary, or by doing voluntary work.

So what don't we know? Whether this Cabinet pressure forces Mahmood to soften the policy, or whether she pushes ahead anyway. And we don't know how many other ministers quietly agree with Fahnbulleh and Rayner but haven't said so.

Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, hasn't said whether he'll step in.

Almost a year after the consultation opened, the policy is still stuck. And now two of his own ministers are saying it might not even work.