LONDON: Shabana Mahmood is the straight-talking, combative interior minister who is overhauling Britain&#39;s asylum system and whose politics have been shaped by her Muslim faith and upbringing as a daughter of Pakistani-origin immigrants. Dubbed &quot;The Terminator&quot; by The Spectator magazine and &quot;the new hard woman of British politics&quot; by Sky News, Mahmood is unapologetic about her attempts to slash migration to the UK. &quot;You may not always like what I do,&quot; the 45-year-old warned fellow Labour MPs at the ruling party&#39;s annual conference in September, shortly after she was appointed home secretary. Mahmood, a former barrister, last week unveiled plans to cut protections for refugees, end automatic benefits for asylum seekers, and extend the time before some regular migrants can apply for permanent status. She said record levels of irregular migration were &quot;tearing our country apart&quot; and insisted her proposals would help &quot;restore order and control.&quot; Mahmood rejects accusations from lawmakers on the left that she is &quot;stoking division by using immoderate language.&quot; She believes soaring support for the hard right, in part due to a failure to stop small boat arrivals of migrants to England, threatens people of colour. In a stunning incident in Parliament this week, she revealed she was &quot;regularly&quot; called a term of racist abuse long directed at people of South Asian origin and &quot;told to go back home.&quot; &quot;It is I who knows, through my personal experience and that of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become.&quot; The 45-year-old was born and raised in the central English city of Birmingham, which has a large South Asian-origin community, to parents with roots in Kashmir. Mahmood was introduced to politics at a young age &mdash; her father was a local Labour Party organiser who would include his daughter as he talked tactics with other members over tea and samosas. &quot;Shabana would let them know exactly what to do, and when to do it,&quot; former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who was among the cohort, told The Guardian. &quot;She could see a problem and cut through it at a young age.&quot; Future leader?Mahmood has often recounted how, when she was growing up, her parents kept a cricket bat behind the counter of their family shop to fend off any would-be shoplifters. &quot;It gave her a recognition of the kind of insecurity that people up and down the country feel on a daily basis, and a desire to heal those divisions,&quot; a person close to Mahmood told AFP on condition of anonymity. Mahmood studied law at Oxford and became one of Britain&#39;s first female Muslim MPs in 2010, elected to represent the Birmingham Ladywood constituency. In an interview earlier this year, she described Islam as the &quot;absolute core of my life.&quot; &quot;It&#39;s where I draw my sense of duty and public service from,&quot; she told The Spectator. Mahmood held multiple shadow minister positions while Labour was in opposition between 2010 and 2024 but declined to serve in left-wing former leader Jeremy Corbyn&#39;s top team. She is considered on the right of the centre-left Labour Party and is often tipped as a potential leader, should Prime Minister Keir Starmer step down. Labour MP Jonathan Hinder told AFP he believes Mahmood&#39;s &quot;bold and radical&quot; asylum reforms can help &quot;neutralise&quot; rising support for Nigel Farage&#39;s anti-immigrant Reform UK party. But Clive Lewis, a left-wing Labour MP, told AFP she was guilty of &quot;desperate political posturing&quot; and &quot;performative cruelty.&quot; Mahmood, for her part, is clear-eyed. &quot;Dark forces are stirring up anger in this country and seeking to turn that anger into hate,&quot; she wrote in The Guardian this week. &quot;We must take the opportunity we have to stop that from happening.&quot;

In this video grab taken from footage broadcast by the UK Parliamentary Recording Unit (PRU) via the Parliament TV website on November 17, 2025, Britain's Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, makes a statement on new reforms to seeking asylum in the UK.

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Shabana Mahmood is the straight-talking, combative interior minister who is overhauling Britain's asylum system and whose politics have been shaped by her Muslim faith and upbringing as a daughter of Pakistani-origin immigrants.

Who is Shabana Mahmood, the hardline UK Labour minister tackling migration?

LONDON: Migrants seeking to settle in the UK will have to have a job, not claim benefits, and undertake community work under plans to be unveiled by the interior minister on Monday. Currently, those with family in Britain and who have lived there for five years qualify for &quot;indefinite leave to remain&quot; -- permanent residence -- as do those who have lived legally in the UK for 10 years on any type of visa. Major policy shift&nbsp;Eligible applicants meeting those thresholds also earn the right to live, work and study in the UK and to apply for benefits and British citizenship. But in a major policy shift, Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood was Monday to announce that migrants would have to make social security contributions, claim no benefits, have a clean criminal record and volunteer in their community in order to stay. Mahmood will outline the plans at the annual conference of the ruling Labour party, and the government will consult on the changes later this year, according to a press release from the party. &lsquo;Indefinite leave to remain&rsquo;The announcement comes shortly after the opposition hard-right Reform Party, which is currently leading in national polls, said it would get rid of &quot;indefinite leave to remain&quot; altogether, with migrants instead required to reapply for visas every five years. This would apply to the hundreds of thousands of people who have already attained leave to remain. &quot;These measures draw a clear dividing line between the Labour government and Reform, whose recent announcement... would force workers, who have been contributing to this country for decades, to leave their homes and families,&quot; said the Labour party statement. &lsquo;Racist&rsquo;Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Sunday called Reform&#39;s plan &quot;racist&quot;, adding it would &quot;tear the country apart&quot;. In her first speech to the Labour conference as interior minister, Mahmood will say that migrants should learn English to a high standard and that she will be a &quot;tough&quot; minister. Immigration is a key issue in the UK, and Mahmood will warn party members that a failure to tackle it will mean that &quot;working people will turn away from us... and seek solace in the false promises&quot; of Reform leader Nigel Farage. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves will also address the conference on Monday, when she will &quot;vow to invest in Britain&#39;s renewal&quot; and announce new plans to get young people in work, according to a Labour press release.&nbsp;

The UK plans stricter rules for migrants seeking permanent residence, requiring employment, no benefits, volunteering, English proficiency, and a clean record, contrasting sharply with the Reform Party’s proposal to abolish indefinite leave entirely.

UK plans tougher rules for migrants seeking to stay in country

Ibrahim Babakhel

ISLAMABAD: The United Kingdom (UK) may suspend visa access for countries that refuse to take back deported nationals, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said after hosting a key meeting of the &ldquo;Five Eyes&rdquo; security alliance in London. &ldquo;If countries don&rsquo;t play ball, we will take action, including possibly cutting visas in the future,&rdquo; Mahmood told reporters at a press conference. The Five Eyes summit brought together security ministers from the UK, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The talks focused on joint efforts to dismantle people-smuggling networks, tackle online child sexual abuse, and curb the spread of synthetic opioids. Mahmood emphasized that securing the UK&rsquo;s borders is her &ldquo;top priority.&rdquo; The UK already has migrant return agreements in place with countries including Albania, India, Vietnam, and Nigeria. Nations that fail to cooperate on deportations now risk visa restrictions for their citizens. So far this year, more than 30,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in small boats. A figure Mahmood described as &ldquo;utterly unacceptable.&rdquo; Critics warn of diplomatic falloutOpposition politicians and migrant rights groups have warned that imposing visa sanctions could damage diplomatic relations and complicate forced removals. Still, Mahmood defended the approach, citing the scale of the migration crisis: &ldquo;I will do whatever it takes.&rdquo; Historic appointment, high stakesMahmood&rsquo;s appointment as Home Secretary is historic: she is the first Muslim woman and first British-Pakistani to hold the role. The milestone has drawn both praise and heightened scrutiny. As she moves to reshape UK immigration policy, Mahmood faces the dual challenges of delivering swift, visible results while managing the diplomatic and public pressures that come with one of Britain&rsquo;s most politically charged portfolios.

UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood warned that countries refusing to accept deported nationals could face visa suspensions

Articles tagged with "Shabana Mahmood"

Who is Shabana Mahmood, the hardline UK Labour minister tackling migration?

UK plans tougher rules for migrants seeking to stay in country

UK mulls visa restrictions for countries that refuse migrant returns