Shabana Mahmood swears at hecklers over Reform UK comparison
Shabana Mahmood told “white liberals” to “fuck off now” after being accused of emulating the policies of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
The Home Secretary was heckled by a man in the audience during a live interview with comedian Matt Forde at a theater in London’s West End on Monday.
The trickster said he “wanted to personally thank you for leaving Reformation behind,” and then two more people in the crowd chanted “welcome refugees.”
“I will not allow a petty racist, a random trickster, or anyone else to claw at the foundations of who I am as a person,” he said.
“I’m a proud British woman. I’m a proud British woman, I’m a very proud Muslim. That’s the absolute essence of my life,” she added.
The home secretary said claims that Reform was imitating his policies were attempts to “delegitimize” people’s “entirely valid” concerns about immigration levels, including the views of “ethnic minorities in the country”.
Claiming racist motivations were behind the arguments, she said: “I think there’s an element of it: ‘How dare you, a brown woman, say something that we white liberals think you’re not allowed to say?’ Anyway, I’m just saying.
“So I said this person can fuck off right away because I know I belong in my own country. You can’t do this to me.”
After the show, Mr Forde posted on He added: “Thank you to the other audience members who came and were so nice.”
A person from Green New Deal Rising, a protest group, said they disturbed Ms Mahmood to protest her “draconian immigration policies and authoritarian moves towards the Palantir-backed AI ‘panopticon'”.
Joe, 32, said: “Having immigrated here when I was four and growing up here, I know the value immigrants bring to our country. “I want to live in a place that treats people fleeing dangerous situations with respect and dignity, not in a place that resorts to racist rhetoric to get Reformation votes.
“Mahmood’s comments about our identities, trying to make it personal because he can’t defend his policies. This isn’t about us disrupting a podcast performance. It’s about the people who live and work here, pay their taxes, have to wait up to 30 years for settled status.”
“This is about innocent children born in the UK, handcuffed and deported. This is about the latest alarming moves towards ICE-style deportations and the security architecture they are putting in front of a potential Reform government. This is not the country I know and love – and this Labor government will see people reject these cruel policies when they lose the May election.”
The home secretary is facing a Labor revolt after he put forward proposals to double the length of time immigrants are allowed to stay in the UK indefinitely from five to 10 years.
It also announced plans to make the refugee status of asylum seekers temporary, to be reviewed every 30 months.
Former deputy prime minister and rumored leadership candidate Angela Rayner was among Labor MPs to criticize the plans.
Charities accused the Home Secretary of “scapegoating immigrants” rather than tackling issues such as poverty, the housing crisis and NHS delays.
An open letter to Ms Mahmood last year, signed by more than 100 charities, said: “Targeting refugees will do nothing to tackle these structural problems or improve people’s lives. It only serves as a dangerous smokescreen to scapegoat the most vulnerable and distract from the real dangers to our society.”
