Shabana Mahmood’s immigration crackdown overshadowed by Labour leadership rumours – latest updates

Radical action is needed to tackle illegal immigration and government plans are just “tinkering with the edges,” shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood needs to take stronger measures than proposals which include taking away accommodation, he suggested.

He told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “It’s tinkering with the edges. It’s not going to make a big difference.

“I don’t object to it in principle, but it’s not going to work. It’s not enough. It’s gimmicks. It’s rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It’s not going to stop people getting on boats.”

He added: “They (Labour) made a huge mistake by cancelling that Rwanda deterrent with no replacement.

“Numbers have surged as a result and that is why we need radical action to come out of the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), which will enable us to deport every single illegal immigrant within a week of arrival and that will have a deterrent effect, not some of these little tinkering measures or gimmicks which Shabana and the Labour Party are proposing.”

The new measures “stop short” of what is required, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said.

“The Government trumpet their removal numbers. But only a tiny fraction of these crossed by small boat, amounting to just 5 per cent of small boat arrivals in that time. And 83 per cent of the numbers returned were voluntary.

“Whilst some of these new measures are welcome, they stop well short of what is really required and some are just yet more gimmicks – like the previous ‘smash the gangs’ gimmick.”

Under current UK rules, those granted refugee status have it for five years and can then apply for indefinite leave to remain and get on a route to citizenship.

But under new plans this will be quadrupled to 20 years, and to settle sooner people will be required to work or study.

Asylum seeker support, such as housing and weekly allowances will also be revoked.

Handouts will also be removed from those who have a right to work and who can support themselves but choose not to or those who break UK law.

The shadow home secretary has accused Labour MPs of “fighting like rats in a sack”, following rumours of a leadership challenge to Keir Starmer.

Chris Philp told Sky News they need to “get a grip” and serve the national interest.

“Instead of serving the national interest, the Labour government are fighting each other just weeks away from a budget that will unleash enormous tax rises on this country, that will drive up unemployment, even further,” he said.

Tackling illegal migration is a “moral mission”, Shabana Mahmood told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.

The Home Secretary was asked if she believed her migration reforms would survive contact with Labour’s MPs and replied: “First, let me say I really reject this idea that dealing with this problem is somehow engaging in far-right talking points.

“I am the child of migrants myself, my parents came to this country lawfully in the late 60s, and in the 70s. Immigration is absolutely woven into my experience as a Brit and also that of thousands of my constituents.

“This is a moral mission for me, because I can see illegal migration is tearing our country apart, it is dividing communities.

“People can see huge pressure in their communities and they can also see a system that is broken, and where people are able to flout the rules, abuse the system and get away with it.”

She added: “I know that I have to persuade people across the country, not just in Parliament, but across the country, that these are reforms that can work.”

The Independent’s political correspondent Caitlin Doherty reports:

Sending a portion of licence fee cash “over to Mar a Lago” amid the BBC’s row with Donald Trump would not be a “smart” thing to do, the shadow home secretary has suggested.

Asked whether licence fee payers money should go towards the White House, as the president is intending to sue the corporation, Chris Philp told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “No, I don’t think so. So look, we all work hard and pay our licence fee.

“I don’t think sending some of it over to over to Mar a Lago would be a smart thing to do.

“He had earlier described Mr Trump as the “wronged party” in the row, and said that “we expect a lot higher standard than that of our national broadcaster”.

The shadow home secretary has accused the government’s new plan for asylum seekers as being a series of “gimmicks”.

Chris Philp told Sky News: “What the government has announced, I think, is a combination of very small steps in the right direction, with a few gimmicks as well. Of course, over the last year and a half, we’ve had all kinds of gimmicks from this government.”

The Independent’s political correspondent Caitlin Doherty reports:

The home secretary has said that the briefing row earlier this week was “deeply mortifying”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Shabana Mahmood referred to briefings as “tittle tattle”.

She said: “I think what happened earlier on this week was horribly embarrassing.

“It’s deeply mortifying for everybody in the government and I’m pleased that the prime minister has dealt with it.”

She pointed to policy announcements from this week, such as the abolition of police and crime commissioners and added: “We all have important difficult jobs to do, and it is incumbent on all of us as cabinet ministers to focus on the job.

“Because all of this tittle tattle, these off the record briefings, people who haven’t got the courage of their convictions to say publicly on the record what they’re saying privately to journalists, all of that it doesn’t stand the test of time.”