5 March 2026

Shabana Mahmood’s change of tone could fall on deaf ears

Backbench discontent is growing over the Home Secretary’s asylum reforms

Photo by Martin Sylvest Andersen/Getty Images

The Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is up to something. She is set to deliver a speech this morning setting out the details of further changes to the asylum system, to include making state support for asylum seekers in the UK more discretionary. The changes are partly inspired by the restrictive approach of Denmark’s Social Democratic Party, which is polling at first place in the run up to a general election later this month.

As reported by our political editor Ailbhe Rea, insiders claim that Mahmood has been asked to “rein in” her rhetoric on immigration and asylum by No 10 (a characterisation denied by her allies). Will we see a change in tone from her today? When Mahmood announced a tranche of asylum changes last November, she went into battle against uncomfortable Labour backbenchers and accused them of being privileged and out of touch, but the backlash was muted. This time, the barrister and backbench Labour MP, Tony Vaughan, sent a private letter of opposition to the Home Secretary that has been signed by 100 Labour MPs – enough to defeat the proposals if it came to a vote.

Vaughan said this morning: “We can change our immigration system for the better without forgetting who we are as a Labour Party. You don’t win back public confidence in the asylum system by threatening to forcibly remove refugees who have lived here lawfully for 15 or 20 years. That just breeds insecurity and fractured communities.” The letter argues that some of Mahmood’s key proposals threaten to undermine the government’s wider integration and cohesion goals and will lead to other bad social and economic outcomes.

Mahmood’s team say she has organically taken it upon herself to persuade the PLP of the need for these changes. In her speech later, she will pitch her plans as “a compassionate but controlled asylum system” that is rooted in “Labour values”. But if the headline that Labour MPs absorb today is that the Home Secretary is targeting children for deportation, any change of tone is unlikely to make much of a difference.