Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to unveil a raft of measures later today to ramp up removals of foreign criminals and make refugee status temporary and subject to regular review
Shabana Mahmood is facing a backlash from Labour MPs over plans for the biggest shake-up to the asylum system since the Second World War.
The Home Secretary is expected to unveil a raft of measures later today to ramp up removals of foreign criminals and make refugee status temporary and subject to regular review, with some facing the prospect of being removed as soon as their home countries are deemed safe.
Under the sweeping changes the government has also threatened to ban three countries from accessing UK visas if they fail to accept illegal migrants. The Home Office said today those counties will include Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, unless their governments rapidly improve co-operation on removals.
But responding to the shake-up of the system, the Labour MP for Folkestone, Tony Vaughan, said the government was “taking the wrong turn” with the proposals. He posted on X: “The idea that recognised refugees need to be deported is wrong. We absolutely need immigration controls.
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“And where those controls decide to grant asylum, we should welcome and integrate, not create perpetual limbo and alienation. ” He urged the government to think again, adding: “The rhetoric around these reforms encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities.”
The left-wing MP and former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said Mr Vaughan was not a “usual suspect” of rebels in the party. He added: ”I suspect he is reflecting here what many in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party ] feel.”
Rachael Maskell, a Labour MP who had the whip restored a fortnight ago, also told Times Radio: “The dehumanisation of people in desperation is the antithesis of what the Labour Party is about.
Last week the Labour MP Stella Creasy also posted on X: “An asylum system which leaves those who flee persecution or their kids in limbo – either when making a claim or when they try to rebuild their lives- is not just cruel.
“It’s counterproductive to integration and costly to all concerned. The UK needs asylum reform that is both effective and ethical. And those of us not frightened to fight for it.”
But the Home Office minister Alex Norris insisted on Monday that Labour was not chasing Reform UK voters with its new asylum policy. He told BBC Breakfast: “The one thing I can assure you is that political considerations don’t come into this.
“We’re the Government of the country. We get out of bed every day to do our best by the people of this country. We know people are fed-up. We know people don’t want to see people coming in an uncontrolled way.”
Over the weekend Ms Mahmood also rejected criticism, saying: “I am the child of migrants myself. My parents came to this country lawfully in the late 60s and in the 70s. Immigration is absolutely woven into my experience as a Brit and also that of thousands of my constituents.”
Ms Mahmood went on: “This is a moral mission for me, because I can see illegal migration is tearing our country apart. It is dividing communities. People can see huge pressure in their communities, and they can also see a system that is broken and where people are able to flout the rules, abuse the system and get away with it.”