Home Secretary ‘to move asylum seekers into barracks’ after Home Office shake-up
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.
Demonstrations
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.
Reshuffle
It comes after the Prime Minister carried out a major reshuffle including wide-ranging changes at the Home Office as he seeks to tighten his grip on immigration and draw a line under Angela Rayner’s resignation.
Former borders minister Dame Angela Eagle and former policing minister Dame Diana Johnson were moved to other departments in the clear-out, while former home secretary Yvette Cooper has become Foreign Secretary.
Former industry minister Sarah Jones will become policing minister, a brief she held in opposition, as part of Ms Mahmood’s new-look team along with Mike Tapp, the Dover MP from Labour’s 2024 intake, and Alex Norris.
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 reshuffle 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 Ms 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.
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Have to agree with the overall objective. Clearly the ‘dispersal’ policy isn’t popular and incredibly expensive. But it’ll be challenging if they follow the other European nations policy of using old barracks, as MOD has sold off so many old sites! I think more discussion around ed Davey’s idea of allowing asylum seekers to work whilst their claim is assessed should be considered. But no matter what they do in regards to reducing costs, backlogs, numbers entering the country or returns, labour will unlikely win back many reform voters. It doesn’t help that both cooper and Mahmood aren’t great communicators… Read more »
The Brexiters should be made to pay for this mess.
Ms Mahmood looks like a product off the Priti Patel cloning machine.
I think she had a statue of Maggie by her bed growing up, a ‘blue’ Labour politician of the first order…if changing water into wine is a miracle then her success in politics is a mystery of shape changing and mental gymnastics worthy of an Olympic medal…
I’m glad to see Mahmood being promoted because she is one of only a handful of ministers that have actually done good work over the last year in terms of setting out a clear policy programme in their departments and getting on with them.
The others being Ed Miliaband with energy, Wes Streeting in the health service and, before she left, Angela Rayner with Housing.
The tax fraudster Rayner never managed to build any houses and Ed Zero is a clueless ideologue.
When does a lie become a “misspoke”? And where’s Farage’s commercial fishing vessel?
Still waiting for Faraaaage to publish his tax returns. Some folks just love to avoid paying it. They love the golden stuff too much.
Ed Miliband is a joke with his unachievable net zero policies and posturing. Wes Streeting is trying hard but all those reports on failing maternity units and other NHS failures will hamper his efforts. Maybe one day someone will realise that a 2 tier health system is not necessarily a bad thing if managed properly as the current system is and will remain broken. Angela Rayner did nothing for housing except draw up plans which would have destroyed some local communities with her “f*ck it we’re building what we want where we want’ ideas. Starmer is so weak – it… Read more »
Thousands of young men housed in barracks with little future before them, how long before the penny drops and they are all conscripted into Clark’s New Model Army…