Mahmood
outlines safe immigration routes plan to win over Labour left
Home
secretary speeds up major part of bill governing asylum and refugees as new
prime minister set to take over
Rowena
Mason and Rajeev Syal
Fri 26
Jun 2026 19.23 BST
Shabana
Mahmood will seek to shore up support for her controversial immigration bill on
the progressive left of Labour, as she sets out plans to speed up the opening
of new safe and legal routes that will permit thousands of refugees to come to
the UK.
The home
secretary, who is the leading contender to stay in her job if Andy Burnham
becomes prime minister, will next week introduce the legislation, which will
also set new limits on immigration claims on human rights grounds and under
modern slavery law.
Burnham
has been under pressure to clarify his stance on Mahmood’s immigration
policies, amid unhappiness among some Labour MPs and charities who believe the
restrictions on asylum claims are too draconian.
Alf Dubs,
the Labour peer, called on Friday for Burnham to move Mahmood out of the Home
Office and for her asylum policies of “performative cruelty” to be ripped up.
The
veteran Labour peer, who came to the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the
persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said the home secretary’s
talents “would be better used elsewhere in the cabinet”.
“This is
Labour’s reset moment when we can consign to the past some of the appalling
language used by politicians to describe refugees: ‘invaders’, ‘an island of
strangers’, ‘tearing our country apart’,” he said.
With
Burnham set to take over in No 10 next month, Mahmood has been attempting to
soften some of her hardline plans including reassessing separate proposals to
make migrants wait 10 years instead of five for indefinite leave to remain.
She has
also been involved in talks to exempt care workers from the changes and was
embroiled in a row on Friday with Keir Starmer over the future of the
immigration minister Mike Tapp, who is accused of briefing the Times on the
proposals and passing off the plans as his own. Mahmood asked for Tapp – a
Starmer loyalist – to be sacked, but No 10 declined.
Sources
in Burnham’s camp said Mahmood is most likely to stay in the Home Office but
cabinet jobs are yet to be nailed down. The broad thrust of the home
secretary’s immigration plans are backed by Burnham, although he has previously
suggested he has reservations about the indefinite leave to remain changes
applying to migrants already in the UK.
He is
understood to have agreed that the new immigration bill should be introduced as
planned on Tuesday, even though he is not expected to be installed as prime
minister until 20 July.
The bill
is due to be introduced within days and will include two safe and legal routes
for refugees to open from the autumn – a sponsorship scheme allowing community
groups to identify refugees to support, and a university student scheme – with
applications taking place within months and refugees arriving next year. A
third scheme will allow employers to sponsor refugees from next year.
Mahmood
has previously said the new safe and legal routes will allow hundreds of
refugees a year to come to the UK and a Labour source said the aim was for it
to reach thousands a year.
A similar
scheme in Canada on which the community sponsorship is based has allowed
400,000 refugees to enter the country since 1979.
Analysis
of the latest immigration statistics shows a 50% drop in refugees arriving on
safe and legal routes in the first quarter of 2026 compared with the same
period in 2025. Just over 3,600 people were granted protection through
resettlement schemes or family reunification.
In the
UK, refugee family reunion – which allows family members to reunite with loved
ones – was paused by Mahmood in September 2025 and was expected to reopen in
spring 2026. Currently, there is no date for when applications will reopen.
Critics
point out that families fleeing war and persecution have almost no safe and
legal way to reach the UK, increasing the risk that they will be driven towards
dangerous journeys out of desperation to find safety and reunite with loved
ones.
A Labour
source said: “The home secretary’s belief is we must play our humanitarian role
to provide safe harbour to those fleeing peril.
“That is
why we will open new, safe and legal routes for genuine refugees. These will be
modest at first, they will grow in time, with the aim of thousands of refugees
a year eventually coming to build a new life here in Britain once order and
control has been restored.”
Other
measures due to be included in the bill include:
Removing
modern slavery protections for any foreign national who has committed a crime
and received a sentence, scrapping the previous 12-month threshold.
Rejecting
last-minute modern slavery claims where an objection could have been raised
earlier or where there is evidence of false documentation.
Allowing
immigration claims to be brought under the right to a family life only if the
family member is a parent, spouse or child under 18 except in exceptional
circumstances.
A new
test to make clear that deporting foreign national offenders is in the public
interest and should only be blocked in the most exceptional circumstances.
Applications
for family reunion under the right to a family life will in future have to be
brought by a UK-based sponsor, not the overseas family member.
Giving
every trafficked and exploited child a dedicated independent guardian to
support their safeguarding and recovery.
.jpeg)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário