Shabana Mahmood warns Labour MPs ‘dark forces are stirring up anger’ over migration | Migration

Shabana Mahmood warned Labor MPs that “dark forces are fueling anger” over immigration, amid growing alarm among senior party figures over the most sweeping overhaul of refugee rights in a generation.

On Monday, Mahmood will unveil controversial new laws to overhaul refugee status, which must be reassessed every two years, restrict asylum applications and toughen the approach to family life rights.

The home secretary warned in an article for the Guardian that anger over illegal immigration could be directed at second-generation immigrants like himself and sour community relations.

“I know that a country with unsafe borders is a less safe country for people who look like me,” he said.

But the Guardian understands the harshness of Mahmood’s plans has caused serious unrest among Labour’s senior aides and ministers, with at least one of them on resignation watch. Two people said they were particularly concerned about plans to speed up deportations of refugee families, including those with children.

Charities have warned that this would risk “another Windrush scandal” and leave refugees in near-permanent limbo, with children in danger of being disengaged from schools and adults unable to pursue careers, making integration difficult.

The home secretary will announce three new safe routes for refugees from war-torn countries such as Sudan and Eritrea to come to the UK legally, but even their situations will be under constant scrutiny.

Mahmood confirmed on Sunday that refugees could be sent back if their country was no longer deemed dangerous and that their situation, including families with young children in school, would be reviewed every 30 months.

The government will tighten how courts apply the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) on family life and will introduce legislation to ensure more deportations of people with family members still in the UK.

It was also revealed on Sunday night that Mahmood had threatened three countries with visa bans because they refused to take people back from the UK.

The Times reported that Mahmood wrote to the embassies of Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in London on Thursday, warning that they had a month to begin co-operating on deportations before the scope of sanctions changed. Mahmood is expected to approve the measures on Monday.

In his article in the Guardian, Mahmood said he knew the changes would “face opposition” but the alternative would risk a collapse of public support for all refugees.

“Dark forces are fueling anger in this country and trying to turn that anger into hatred. We must seize the opportunity we have to prevent this from happening. And I know we can do it,” he wrote.

“The true nature of this country is openness, tolerance and generosity. We want to provide refuge to those in danger. We want to be Great Britain, not a little England. To do this, we must restore order and control.”

Mahmood will outline three “modest” routes for refugees from war-torn countries such as Sudan, Palestine or Eritrea, for those who are students and want to work in certain professions, as well as for refugees who come sponsored by community and voluntary organizations that support them when they arrive. Refugees coming through these routes will not be given permanent settled status.

Other important measures to be announced on Monday include:

• Restricting asylum seekers to a single application instead of different applications based on multiple grounds.

• Creating a new body to expedite prosecutions of dangerous criminals and those with little hope of success.

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• Join other countries in seeking to reform Article 3 ECHR rights to define more narrowly the risk of torture and degrading treatment.

• Transforming the Home Office’s duty to provide support to asylum seekers into a discretionary one, allowing them to potentially be removed from accommodation.

Some senior aides are understood to have serious reservations about how this will affect school-age children, and MPs are understood to be particularly concerned about Ukrainian refugees bringing young children, many of whom are fully integrated into British life.

Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council said: “These sweeping changes will mean that a child who has settled into the school and is working hard for their GCSEs will be suspended and forcibly removed, possibly detained as part of that process,” said Enver Solomon of the Refugee Council, comparing it to how long-settled people were treated under the Windrush scandal.

Mahmood is also understood to be trying to introduce legislation that would change the way the ECHR is interpreted by UK judges. Asylum seekers often use the right to family life provisions to remain in the UK.

The impact of the changes could mean many more people being deported from the UK, even if they have young children living here. Judges will need to prioritize “public safety” over family rights. A Home Office source suggested this would be more likely to apply to extended family.

It was also revealed on Sunday night that Mahmood had threatened three countries with visa bans because they refused to take people back from the UK.

The Times reported that Mahmood wrote to the embassies of Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo in London on Thursday, warning that they had a month to begin co-operating on deportations before the scope of sanctions changed. Mahmood is expected to approve the measures on Monday.

Mahmood will warn relevant Labor MPs that the changes are necessary to respond to public concerns about immigration levels as well as counter-attacks from Reform UK.

He wrote in the Guardian: “If we fail to act, we risk losing public consent to have an asylum system. In a country where divisions are growing on our streets, we cannot achieve unity unless we bring order to our borders.”

“My goal is to ensure that there are legal routes to this country for people who are truly fleeing danger and this is the first safe country they encounter.”

The Home Office has widely reported that Mahmood was inspired by the Danish system, which has much stricter rules on family reunification and refugee status.

Mahmood’s predecessor, Yvette Cooper, in September temporarily suspended new applications from the family reunification route, which allows people granted asylum in the UK to bring their families.

Home Office sources suggested the asylum rights changes would have much wider effects than those introduced by the Conservative Party.

Nearly 40,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats to seek asylum in the UK so far this year, with the number of asylum applications in the UK at a record high. Government figures show 111,084 people have applied for asylum in England by June 2025.

Both the Conservatives and Reform UK have said they will leave the ECHR to take tougher measures to reduce immigration. Mahmood has said he will not leave the ECHR, but there are likely to be significant legal challenges over his proposal on Monday.

The Conservatives suggested that if Mahmood faced a rebellion from Labor supporters, the party could support the plans he put forward.

But shadow home secretary Chris Philp criticized the plans as “very small steps in the right direction with a few tricks up their sleeves”.

He told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “We don’t want illegal immigration at all. We need to put a cap on legal internal immigration every year, so the numbers are very, very dramatically lower.”

Some loyalist MPs told the Guardian they were deeply disturbed by the prospect of the lives of settled refugee families being disrupted if their countries became safer to return to. It appears that at least one minister has serious reservations.

Labor MP Tony Vaughan called on the government to “think again” about the changes. “The Prime Minister said in September that we were at a crossroads. These asylum offers show that we have gone down the wrong path,” he said in X.

“The idea that recognized refugees should be deported is wrong. The rhetoric around these reforms promotes the same divisive culture that has seen racism and abuse rise in our societies.”

Labor MP Stella Creasy wrote in the Guardian that leaving refugees in “perpetual limbo” for 20 years was morally as well as economically damaging. “If we want to stop the boats, we need to stop the BS when it comes to what causes refugees or how to respond to them,” he said.

“Unless you can stabilize your status, you will always struggle to find a job, bank account or mortgage, making you more likely to remain dependent on government or voluntary support.”