Shabana Mahmood says she suffers racist abuse ‘every single day’ and shares fears
The Home Secretary, who unveiled the biggest asylum shake-up in a generation this week, accused her critics of denying there was a problem, claiming they’d never been told to ‘eff off home’
Shabana Mahmood has revealed she receives racist abuse every day, and shared fears for her family amid growing hatred in Britain.
The Home Secretary, who unveiled the biggest asylum shake-up in a generation this week, accused her critics of denying there was a problem, claiming they’d never faced being told to “eff off home”.
Speaking on Radio 4’s The Today Programme, Ms Mahmood also claimed every Muslim she knows is now more worried about racism on the streets.
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She said: “It disappointed me very much that so many people in the house, they’re still a minority but they were pretty vocal, were wanting to suggest there wasn’t a problem at all, it flies in the face of every experience that I have, my family has and in fact that my constituents have as well.
“They are called ‘f***ing p**s’. I’m going to get in trouble from my mother who does not like me swearing. But she knows that it’s a swear word that I am on the receiving end of.
“I don’t pay attention to social media actually, but there is a ton of abuse that comes in my direction, not just from anonymous accounts, every day, but even worse, named people in the real world who email me and write to me and tell me.
“If I didn’t have police officers as part of my security detail these days, I am sure many of those would come up to my face and say it. It has happened more in recent times to not just myself, but close family members. I worry about the head scarf wearing women in my family in particular.
“I’m not alone in that, every Muslim I know these days worries a lot more about vocal racism being shouted at them in the street.”
On Monday the Home Secretary announced a string of hardline measures, ordering officials to stop being hesitant about kicking out families including children. And she revealed that the Government is investigating enforced returns to Syria after the brutal regime led by Bashar al-Assad was toppled.
In a riposte to her critics, Ms Mahmood claimed those who attacked her proposals were in a position of privilege.
She said: “I was responding to the Liberal Democrat spokesperson at the time, but I had had a similar comment from others during the course of the debate in Parliament, which was to say that I was adopting far-right talking points that there wasn’t this problem in our country that even acknowledging or suggesting there was, was somehow a failure on my part.
“I just really wanted to lance that boil because I think that that assertion comes from a place of privilege, which is a place where someone doesn’t have to walk through their life in this country and ever here, themselves told to ‘eff off home’
“I just really wanted to challenge that because it is the direct opposite of why I am dealing with these issues. It’s my job, I’m the Home Secretary, but I think that telling the truth about what the scale of a problem is is the first step you have to take before you can think about what the correct solutions are.”
