Shabana Mahmood will announce new laws on Thursday to make her Denmark-style asylum reforms a reality, including legislation allowing the Home Office to evict migrants from asylum hotels from June, as first revealed by The i Paper in January.
But the Home Secretary is coming under pressure to water down her hardline policies from MPs in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election loss as Labour pivots towards shoring up its left-wing base, rather than try to attract Reform UK voters.
In a major speech Mahmood will insist “Labour values” are “at the heart” of her migration reforms.
The plans will also set up a potential battle with Labour MPs who are threatening a revolt over some of the toughest measures amid signs of jitters in Sir Keir Starmer’s team about whether or not to shift the Government’s political strategy as the party faces new threats from the left.
No 10 has not denied asking the Home Secretary to tone down her rhetoric while The i Paper can reveal that even allies of Mahmood believe she will be forced to soften some of her tougher reforms as Labour tries to win back progressive voters from the Green Party of England and Wales.
The Home Secretary will also outline a “Labour case” for her Denmark-style tough asylum reforms, insisting that they are “not a betrayal of Labour values” but instead “an embodiment of them” and a “necessary condition” for the Government to succeed, in a sign of shifting tone.
Mahmood facing pressure from allies to water down reforms
A Home Office source insisted there would be “no softening of policy”, however, with Mahmood to unveil legislation to scrap an EU-mandated duty to support asylum seekers with hotel accommodation, cash, healthcare and food.
The move will be targeted at asylum seekers who break the law, illegally work or can support themselves financially. It will pave the way for the Home Office to evict people from hotels, which have become a flashpoint for voter anger over the Channel small boats crisis, with Mahmood insisting “taxpayers cannot be expected to fund the lives of those who exploit the system or break our laws”.
She will also unveil legislation to enact other hardline asylum policies, including making refugee status temporary rather than permanent, and is likely to face questions on similarly tough changes to legal immigration rules.
But it comes with Mahmood facing pressure, even from allies, to soften some of the policies.
One senior party insider said that after coming third in the Gorton and Denton by-election the Prime Minister’s political hopes now rest on uniting progressives behind Labour as the “anti-Reform” party of choice, instead of seeing the centre-left vote split with the Greens and Liberal Democrats, rather than chasing voters sympathetic to Nigel Farage.
‘You can’t out-Reform Reform’
“The one thing you can’t do to attract the anti-Reform vote is to convince them that you are going to be stronger than Farage on the things Farage campaigns on, you can’t out-Reform Reform,” the insider said.
“Shabana is very clever at knowing where the public is at but I think that what our politicians and a lot of our strategy people have not got their heads round is, you can only go so far in keeping those people happy without showing too much leg and losing too much of your base.
“That’s the risk that Shabana has got – losing the people that we need and chasing people we can never get.”
Asked if Mahmood would need to make concessions on her plans, the insider said: “I think so, I think she’s going to have to.”
A senior Labour MP, who is also a supporter of Mahmood, said the Home Secretary may have to soften her plans to make it harder for immigrants to get settled status in the UK.
Backbenchers want Mahmood to show “flexibility” to ensure the likes of skilled migrants, care workers and those close to getting status are not denied indefinite leave to remain under plans to extend the qualifying period from five to 10 years.
Mahmood to argue reforms are ‘compassionate but controlled’
In her speech to the centre-left IPPR think-tank, Mahmood is expected to warn that failing to control the Channel crisis risks boosting the far right as the “loss of control” breeds fear among voters.
“When fearful, people turn inwards. Their vision of this country narrows. Their patriotism turns into something smaller, something darker, an ethnonationalism emerges.
“The idea of a greater Britain gives way to the lure of a littler England. And other voices – voices to the far right – take hold.”
She will insist her reforms will offer a “compassionate but controlled” asylum system, plotting a path between “Farage’s nightmare pulling up the drawbridge and shutting out the world” and “[Green leader Zack] Polanski’s fairy-tale of open borders”.
£4bn spent on asylum support
Last year £4bn was spent on asylum support in the UK with 107,003 receiving it as of December, including 30,657 in around 200 asylum hotels, costing the Home Office an average of £53,000 a year.
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Among this, around 21,000 migrants could be granted the right to work because they have been waiting for more than 12 months for their asylum claim.
Meanwhile, a record-breaking 9,000 illegal working arrests were made across the UK last year – some of which were asylum seekers.
Under the tougher policy, these people could be eligible to have their support removed, alongside those who break the law, refuse removal and can financially support themselves.
The Conservatives said Mahmood’s plan to begin evicting asylum seekers from hotels was a “gimmick”.
“Labour should put foreign criminals on a plane home, not on to British streets,” shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said.
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