Starmer toughens immigration plans after cabinet reshuffle, asylum seekers to be moved from hotels to barracks: UK politics live

John Healey has said Labour spent its first year in power “fixing the mess” left behind by the Conservatives.

And the defence secretary added that the coming years will now be focused on “renewing and rebuilding”.Following the prime minister’s reshuffle over the weekend, Mr Healey told Sky News: “What Keir Starmer has done is put a new team in place and said to us all, you’ve got to go up a gear.

“You’ve got to go up a gear to demonstrate that government can deliver for people.

“And what that means is that we’ve got to start to show that we can help change people’s lives, make them better off and make them more secure.”

It is up to Angela Rayner whether she takes a £17,000 severance payment, despite Labour vowing to block such payments from October in a crackdown on sleaze, John Healey has said.

Sir Keir Starmer moved to tighten the rules around severance pay, with ministers in future to have payments withheld if they are forced out over serious breaches of the ministerial code.

But, after the deputy prime minister was forced out on Friday having breached the ministerial code, the defence secretary said it would be up to her whether she collects the payout.

He told Sky News: “This will be a matter for Angela, whether he decides to accept it or not. But what we’ve done, and Keir Starmer has done, since coming into government, is changed and tightened the rules over severance payments.#

“So we don’t see in the future what we saw under the Tories, where you had ministers serving for a week and then helping themselves to severance payments.”

Dozens of asylum hotels are expected to close after they became the focal point of several demonstrations in recent months.

Ministers are also close to agreeing a returns deal with Germany, having already secured one with France, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One Government source said “nothing is off the table” for Ms Mahmood as she assumes her new brief, which puts her in charge of borders and asylum policy.

She has previously signalled a willingness to look at human rights reform within domestic law.

Britain has had six foreign secretaries in four years. This century, we have had a new housing minister every year on average. And we have had more prime ministers in the last 10 years than in the previous 36.

Such churn in ministerial office is inimical to good administration. Just as a minister is beginning to understand the complex challenges of their department, the government car takes them to a new office where they are rendered useless by ignorance.

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Sir Keir Starmer said his focus was on “delivery” after he carried out a purge of Home Office ministers in a major Government reshuffle following Angela Rayner’s resignation.

The Prime Minister is seeking to draw a line under the damaging fallout from his former deputy’s breach of the ministerial code with a new-look Cabinet as several figures were sacked or moved aside.

Sir Keir made sweeping changes at the Home Office, where Yvette Cooper was replaced by former justice secretary Shabana Mahmood and borders minister Dame Angela Eagle was moved to the farming brief.

He said on Saturday: “The new ministers will drive forward our growth agenda with a relentless focus.

“Phase two of this Government is about delivery and this is a Government that will renew Britain and deliver the change people voted for.”

The shake-up is a sign the Prime Minister is seeking to tighten his grip on immigration, as the number of small boat crossings in the English Channel soared to an estimated 1,000 people over the course of Saturday.

Ms Mahmood is expected to make policy announcements on asylum imminently, with one Government source saying “nothing is off the table” for her as she assumes her new brief.

Shabana Mahmood is expected to unveil plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks as the Government seeks to harden its immigration policy amid rising numbers of crossings in the Channel.

The newly appointed Home Secretary is reportedly set to announce the use of Ministry of Defence sites to house people after a wave of protests outside migrant accommodation over the summer.

The scale of the challenge facing the former justice secretary in her new role was illustrated on Saturday, when an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK by small boat over the course of the day.

Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones earlier denied that the Government was in crisis and insisted Sir Keir now has the “strongest team” in place around the Cabinet table following Ms Rayner’s departure.

He ruled out the prospect of an early election amid opposition claims that the upheaval could open up splits within Labour and collapse the Prime Minister’s authority.

Speaking to broadcasters on Saturday, Mr Jones dismissed suggestions that the rejig could delay the Prime Minister’s self-described “phase two” of Government by moving senior figures to unfamiliar briefs.

“It’s not instability insofar as the outcomes that we’re delivering are the same,” Mr Jones, who is also the newly-appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told BBC Breakfast.

He rejected the idea Yvette Cooper had been moved out of the Home Office because she was failing to control immigration, adding she would be “brilliant” in her new role as the UK’s top diplomat.

Sir Keir Starmer has continued his major reshuffle following Angela Rayner’s resignation as housing secretary and deputy prime minister.

The prime minister is seeking to relaunch his government as it lags behind Reform UK in the polls and struggles to deliver on key promises.

Sir Keir moved Yvette Cooper from the Home Office to the Foreign Office on Friday in a major shake-up of his top team.

But now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, including sweeping changes in the Home Office.