UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood delivered an emotional and hard-hitting statement as she unveiled sweeping reforms to the UK’s asylum and immigration system.
Addressing political division, she revealed she regularly receives racial abuse, including being called “a f**ing pki,” highlighting the increasingly toxic climate surrounding migration debates.
Mahmood’s reforms include temporary refugee status, tighter family reunion rules, accelerated removals of failed asylum seekers, and a drive to reduce illegal arrivals.
The government says the plan aims to restore order, strengthen borders, and modernize the UK’s refugee framework.
#ShabanaMahmood #UKPolitics #ImmigrationReform #AsylumSystem #HomeOffice #RacismInPolitics #BreakingNews #UKNews
Addressing political division, she revealed she regularly receives racial abuse, including being called “a f**ing pki,” highlighting the increasingly toxic climate surrounding migration debates.
Mahmood’s reforms include temporary refugee status, tighter family reunion rules, accelerated removals of failed asylum seekers, and a drive to reduce illegal arrivals.
The government says the plan aims to restore order, strengthen borders, and modernize the UK’s refugee framework.
#ShabanaMahmood #UKPolitics #ImmigrationReform #AsylumSystem #HomeOffice #RacismInPolitics #BreakingNews #UKNews
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00:00I have to say to the honourable gentleman, I wish I had the privilege of walking around this country
00:04and not seeing the division that the issue of migration and asylum system is creating across
00:11this country. Unlike him, unfortunately, I am the one that is regularly called a fucking packy and
00:16told to go back home. It is I who knows through my personal experience and that of my constituents
00:21just how divisive the issue of asylum has become in our country. And I do say to him,
00:28I wish it were possible to say that there isn't a problem here, that there's nothing to see and that
00:33it is all in fact just extremist right-wing talking points. But this system is broken and it is
00:38incumbent on all members of Parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is
00:43and to make it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division that we all
00:49see. And I do say to him, I do not think it is acceptable or appropriate for people in this place
00:54to not acknowledge the real experience of those who sit outside of this house. We are supposed to
01:00be in here to reflect that experience in this house. And I hope that he will approach the debates that
01:06we will no doubt have on all of these measures in that, in that spirit.
01:10About the millions of people that have become refugees or homeless all around the world. And that more than two-thirds of those are housed by the southern countries, the poorest countries in the world, with the least resources possible to do it.
01:24And what she's doing instead is putting in draconian measures against refugees trying to come to this country, failing to recognize that more than 6,000, for example, of those that crossed the channel this year come from Afghanistan,
01:38a war-torn country that we helped to make into a war-torn country. And she instead is trying to appease the most ghastly right-wing racist forces all across Europe in undermining and walking away from the European Convention on Human Rights,
01:53a convention created by the post-war Labour government. Does she not recognize history is going to be a harsh judge on this government for undermining the whole global humanitarian principles behind the ECHR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
02:10Madam Secretary.
02:12Well, not for the first time. I'm a little mystified as to what the honourable gentleman is talking about. He starts with the global context. I guess my start point is different to his because I start with our
02:23domestic context first. He ought to know that in this country there have already been bespoke schemes for the resettlement of people from Afghanistan. So perhaps he could, you know, read up on those schemes.
02:38He should also have heard from what I said in my statement that we remain absolutely committed to offering sanctuary to those who are fleeing conflict abroad.
02:46We think that the best way to do that is not to encourage people to get on a boat in the channel by paying thousands and thousands of pounds to people smugglers.
02:55Who, by the way, it's not just smuggling that's a vile crime. Those individuals are involved in all sorts of other disgusting organised crime.
03:01They should not be in receipt of money from vulnerable people. I want to disincentivise people making that choice.
03:07And I want to incentivise people coming on safe and legal routes instead. And if he would actually read the asylum policy statement, he would know it's the policy position of this government to provide more safe and legal routes.
03:21Once he's done more reading, I'll be happy to answer more of his questions.
03:24Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I do remember when the Prime Minister pledged an immigration system based upon compassion and dignity.
03:35Yet now, and it needs to be said, we've got an immigration minister tweeting, deport, deport, deport.
03:42And now this policy announcement, which I'm afraid scrapes the bottom of the barrel.
03:47If we're being frank, isn't this just a desperate attempt to triangulate with reform?
03:52And like some of the other terrible policy errors that have been made in recent months, isn't it not only morally wrong, but another policy which is set to push away Labour voters?
04:06Why not recognise that now, than in a few months, and make a U-turn?
04:11I'm Secretary.
04:13I would really caution my honourable friend not to defend a broken status quo.
04:18He should also know that it is foreign national offenders that are deported from this country.
04:24And I would hope he could agree that foreign national offenders should be deported from this country.
04:30We should not be keeping convicted criminals in our nation a day longer than is absolutely necessary.
04:36And I just say to him, the thing that's morally wrong is knowing that you have a broken system and then pretending either that it's not broken or defending a broken status quo.
04:47I will never tolerate that.
04:49And I have to say to him, as I've said to other members opposite today as well,
04:52I do not care for what other parties are saying on these matters or what other politicians have to say either.
04:59I have thought first and foremost of my moral responsibility to the people of this country as I fulfil my duty as Home Secretary.
05:06I have a series of reforms here that are underpinned by the values of the Labour Party and the values of the British people.
05:12They are fairness and they are contribution.
05:14I hope he will reflect on that as he reads up on the detail of these reforms.
05:18In February, during the Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill,
05:24I raised the issue of the generous financial and accommodation package advertised on the government's own website,
05:29Asylum Support, What You'll Get,
05:31which outlines a provision of an Aspen card with £49.18 of cash loaded onto it each week on top of free accommodation,
05:37even if you've been refused asylum.
05:39Cards that are able to be used for gambling and have been over 6,000 times, according to an FOI.
05:43In May, I raised it again when I asked the previous Home Secretary what she planned to do
05:47to address the pull factor of this free cash and a free home.
05:50So can this Home Secretary now commit to my previous calls that these pull factors must be mitigated to be a deterrent?
05:56And will those on Section 4 or Section 95 support have the benefit withdrawn under these measures?
06:01Madam Secretary.
06:02Well, I would urge him to look at the detail of the asylum policy statement,
06:05the whole point of which is to deal with the pull factors that we know are drawing people
06:09to get on a dangerous boat and cross the channel illegally.
06:14The upshot of the reforms is to deal with those pull factors.
06:16And you will know that within the asylum policy statement,
06:19we have said that it is a relatively small number,
06:22it's just under 10%,
06:23but just under 10% of those in asylum accommodation
06:26already do have the right to work.
06:28And in future, we will expect them, where they have the right to work, to work.
06:32Stella Creason.
06:33Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
06:36The Home Secretary is arguing that what will heal this divided nation
06:40is to get somebody who we have agreed is a refugee,
06:45with a well-founded fear of persecution,
06:48to feel a permanent sense of limbo,
06:51because they will never be able to plan for the long term for them or their family,
06:56because their status will always be uncertain,
06:59because they could still face deportation.
07:03Her consultation document, which I have read,
07:06talks about using enforced return for families.
07:11Last year alone, 10,000 children,
07:15many of whom are with their families,
07:17were granted refugee status in this country.
07:21I know she plans to consult,
07:23but given this does involve children,
07:26can she be clear with us whether she intends to incarcerate children
07:29with their families as part of enforced return,
07:32or whether she intends to separate children from their mums and dads
07:36as part of this policy,
07:38and how we will continue to uphold the UN Rights to Child Convention
07:41returns of education.
07:44I'm second, please.
07:46Well, I would encourage my honourable friend
07:48to look at the detail of the asylum policy statement
07:51on our intentions in relation to the protection, work and study route,
07:56which in future will be the route by which refugees can contribute
08:00and earn their way to settlement in this country.
08:03And of course, it is the express intention of this policy statement
08:07to disincentivise people coming through dangerous channel crossings
08:11and to incentivise and to push people towards what will, over time,
08:15become more generous, safe and legal routes of entry into this country
08:19with more privileged status when it comes to the earning of permanent settlement.
08:23Let me say to her on failed asylum-seeking families,
08:26because I think that is the important context that was missing from her question.
08:30There are 700 Albanian families at the moment who have made asylum claims.
08:36Those asylum claims have failed,
08:38and the only reason they have not been removed from the country
08:41is because of the policies around not removing families,
08:45that is to say, parents with their children.
08:47We are not going to separate parents and their children,
08:50but we are going to consult on the removal of support
08:53and how we effectively and safely ensure that those individuals are returned.
08:57But we will, of course, want to see most of those people return voluntarily instead.
09:03Liz Savile-Roberts.
09:05Ariadne Rupilovarov.
09:07Stoking fear and division through the kind of performative cruelty
09:11trailed over the media this weekend has consequences.
09:16We saw that in Karfili last month,
09:19where Reform UK spread information.
09:22Ukrainians spoke of intimidation.
09:24So, when she speaks of unity,
09:28surely the lesson from Karfili is that
09:30imitating reform doesn't create unity,
09:35doesn't win trust,
09:37but standing firm on values does.
09:39Hear, hear.
09:41I'm sorry, that's just unserious from the Honourable Lady.
09:44I'm sorry.
09:44I'm sorry to find that the Reform Party is living rent-free
09:47in so many people's heads.
09:48I can assure you it's living nowhere near mine.
09:50These policy proposals are designed to fix what we all know to be true,
09:56which is we have a broken system.
09:58It is driving division across our country.
10:02I see that in my own constituency.
10:04I hope she's not suggesting that the evidence of my own eyes
10:07and my own experience in my own constituency,
10:09where over 70% of those people are not white,
10:12and most of them have a migration story just like my own,
10:15these are matters of great interest across our country,
10:18across every type of community in our country.
10:21And it is incumbent on any government
10:23that wants to make sure that we can run a decent system
10:26and not fuel division in our country
10:28to pursue the sorts of reforms that we are talking about today,
10:31underpinned by what I would have hoped were values
10:34that her party could have signed up to as well,
10:36and that is to say fairness and contribution.
10:38Laurence Sullivan.
10:40Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker.
10:42I thank and support the Home Secretary for her statement today.
10:45This is long overdue reform of the system,
10:47such as reforming safe and legal routes,
10:49cracking down on illegal working,
10:51and also against those abusing the asylum, sick and immigration system,
10:56yet maintains support for those that need our support,
10:59such as those fleeing war in Ukraine
11:01and others that come here legally.
11:03It is about fairness.
11:05Can the Home Secretary detail when these reforms will be in place
11:09so that residents can see the outcomes of these actions?
11:13Thank my honourable friend for her question.
11:15We will pursue the consultation,
11:17the measures that require consultation,
11:19as quickly as possible,
11:21and there will be legislation in the coming months,
11:24and certainly in the second session,
11:25which we will seek to afford, obviously,
11:27subject to the agreement of the House,
11:28passed as quickly as possible.
11:30Jo Robertson.
11:31Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
11:33The Home Secretary's asylum plans still have a gaping hole
11:38in the middle of them,
11:39in that she doesn't know what to do
11:41with failed asylum seekers who can't be returned home.
11:45Her statement today says that she's exploring possibilities
11:48with third countries.
11:51Can I suggest she swallows her pride
11:53and speaks to a third country we know is willing,
11:56Rwanda?
11:57I'm Secretary.
11:58Look, I do say to members opposite,
12:02they are going to have to ditch their addiction to Rwanda.
12:04It didn't work,
12:05and nobody in the country supported it.
12:08We are, as he well knows,
12:10as he well knows,
12:11and as members opposite well know,
12:12when you are negotiating with other countries
12:14about possible agreements,
12:15the one thing you do not do
12:16is publicise them before an agreement is reached.
12:19Rebecca Long-Bernet.
12:21The Home Secretary is aware
12:22that in absence of safe legal routes,
12:25the law forces the situation
12:26where a refugee has to set foot on UK soil
12:30to seek asylum,
12:32which has led to dangerous journeys
12:34and no checks or vetting taking place.
12:36Now, the Secretary's referenced sponsorship
12:39as the primary safe route.
12:41Could she clarify whether this is capable
12:43of being applied for from outside the UK?
12:46And what consideration has she made
12:48of recommendations by safe passage
12:50to implement a visa refugee scheme
12:53so that applications can be done
12:55from outside the UK,
12:57cases assessed, vetted and decided upon
13:00before a refugee embarks
13:02on a dangerous journey here?
13:03Prime Secretary.
13:05Well, I thank my honourable friend
13:06for her question.
13:07The whole purpose of the new safe and legal routes
13:10is that those individuals are accepted
13:12as refugees before they enter
13:14into the United Kingdom.
13:15The point of that being
13:17is that they never then pay thousands of pounds
13:19to illegal smugglers
13:21along any sort of route
13:22that they might travel on.
13:23So it is, in fact, exactly as she says,
13:26you want to accept people as refugees
13:27before they set foot on UK soil
13:29and then, once they are here
13:31on that safe and legal route,
13:32they will access permanent settlement
13:34more quickly than any other route
13:36in this country.
13:37And it is a good thing
13:38that the government is seeking
13:39to incentivise people
13:41to come through safe and legal routes
13:43and not pay thousands and thousands of pounds
13:45to criminals along the way.
13:47Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
13:51It was a genuinely good statement
13:54as far as it went,
13:56from which we learnt
13:58that countries could be determined
14:01to be safe at some point in the future
14:03and refugees from them returned home.
14:07Can the Home Secretary say
14:09what a criteria...
14:10...
14:11...
14:11...
14:12...
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