Shabana Mahmood vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers in Labour immigration crackdown – latest

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is considering a mansion tax that people could defer paying until they move house or after they die, in a bid to target estate wealth.

The tax will apply to properties valued at £2 million and above.

The Treasury is considering using the council tax system to revalue 2.4 million of the most valuable properties in bands F, G and H.

However, concerns have been expressed that this will impact “asset rich, cash poor” homeowners who may have to sell their homes to cover the cost. It will be at the top of inheritance tax.

Reacting to the plan, Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch told The Telegraph: “Measures like this not only kill growth, they kill the forces of ambition and hard work that help build our economy.”

According to The Telegraph, Angela Rayner is plotting against Keir Starmer and making a cabinet offer to MPs in exchange for their support.

The former deputy prime minister is “in a back-to-back race” for the leadership race, a source told the newspaper.

He has also joined the Tribune, a pressure group of MPs that now has 70 members and could be used as a leadership tool for a candidate in the future.

But a source close to Ms Rayner claimed this was “complete nonsense” and that she was focused on “representing the local community”.

The reform package is said to be inspired by the Danish system under which refugees are generally granted two-year temporary residence permits, with no guarantee of obtaining a permanent visa.

Ministers have learned lessons from hard-line asylum approaches, where a government aligned with Labor has managed to remove the incentives that attract people to the country and increased deportations of illegal immigrants.

Senior Home Office officials traveled to Copenhagen earlier this year to learn about the country’s asylum policy.

The country reduced the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully took back 95 percent of rejected asylum seekers.

At the same time, Denmark remains a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty that has drawn the ire of some over political rights who say it hinders efforts to deport illegal immigrants.

Denmark’s stricter rules on family reunification are also under review.

Some 39,075 people have crossed the Channel on small boats to reach the UK so far this year, according to the latest Home Office figures.

The number of arrivals has already surpassed the figures for 2024 (36,816) and 2023 (29,437), but the number is still below the total for 2022 (39,929).

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood said: “This country has a proud tradition of welcoming those fleeing danger, but our generosity is drawing illegal immigrants across the Channel.”

“The speed and scale of migration is putting huge pressure on communities.

“This week I will announce the most sweeping changes to our asylum system for a generation. We will restore order and control at our borders.”

He also told The Sunday Times that the changes were “essentially designed to tell people: don’t come to this country as an illegal immigrant, don’t get on a boat”.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood has promised to make refugee status temporary as part of an overhaul of the system.

As part of the crackdown, asylum seekers may automatically lose their right to housing and financial support and will have to wait 20 years before they can apply to settle in the country permanently.

It is part of a major overhaul of the immigration system inspired by the Danish model and comes as Labor struggles to restore confidence in the asylum system to stave off the threat of a Reform government in the UK.