The UK will suspend visas from countries that do not “play ball” and agree to take back migrants, the new home secretary has said as she set out her hardline approach to tackling illegal immigration.
On her third day in the job, Shabana Mahmood said she would go “further and faster” than her predecessor Yvette Cooper and do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings, saying she was “not the sort of person that hangs around”.
She also hit out at the “utterly unacceptable” number of migrants arriving in the UK on dinghies, after the number of Channel crossings this year passed 30,000 in record time.
Ms Mahmood said she had been discussing the suspension of visas with the UK’s “Five Eyes” allies, as she met Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, and counterparts from Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
She said: “For countries that do not play ball, we’ve been talking about how we can take much more coordinated action between the Five Eyes countries.
“For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future, just to say, you know, we do expect countries to play ball, play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back.”
It follows a pledge by Reform UK to deport 600,000 people over five years, including through the use of possible visa restrictions to secure returns agreements.
But, vowing to do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings, she defended the move as a “Labour policy”.
She said: “This is a Labour government with Labour policy and Labour proposals.
“We’ve been looking at this for some time. It’s been discussed already across the government and I’m very clear that there has to be a strong approach to maintaining our border, and that does mean saying to countries who do not take their citizens back that we’re not simply going to allow our laws to remain unenforced.”
She also said ministers would look at proposals to change domestic legislation and guidance on how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is implemented, saying the “balance” between human rights and secure borders “isn’t in the right place at the moment”.
She also made clear she backed ID cards, although she sidestepped the question of whether they would become compulsory to help deal with immigration.
Her move is the most significant appointment made by Sir Keir Starmer in the reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation.
The government is battling to contain the small boats crisis, caused by the highest ever numbers recorded at this point in the year, as Nigel Farage’s Reform UK seeks to capitalise on the issue.
The UK has returns agreements with countries including Albania, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Georgia, Somalia, Serbia and Algeria.
Ministers also recently agreed a returns deal with France, although that could evaporate if the French government collapses, as expected.
Ms Mahmood’s comments go further than Sir Keir, who during a G7 meeting in June said the UK could limit visas for countries which did not do enough to tackle the irregular migration crisis, such as taking back failed asylum seekers.
On Monday the “Five Eyes” countries signed an agreement to work more closely to tackle irregular migration and return people with no right to remain.
Ms Mahmood said other countries signed up to the ECHR wanted Britain to play a “leading role” in reforming the convention, which entered force in 1953.
She said: “Other countries are struggling with the challenges of mass migration, maintaining our borders, and I think that this is a useful time for us to have a refreshed conversation, and I’m confident we can make more progress.”
Reform has pledged to leave the ECHR entirely, along with other international conventions it says prevents “mass deportations”, while Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has asked her shadow attorney general to examine the practicalities of leaving ahead of the Conservative Party conference next month. But Ms Mahmood reiterated that Labour would not look to leave the Convention, saying this would have “other consequences” that were not in the national interest.
Ms Mahmood is also planning a wider crackdown on immigration policy and is expected to set out plans this week to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks, after a summer of protests over migration.
She is working with the Ministry of Defence to identify sites to house people, with military planners scoping out potential sites, defence secretary John Healey confirmed on Sunday.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “It’s about time this Labour government now stopped talking tough and started acting tough. Any country that won’t take back its own citizens who have committed a criminal offence in the UK or who have no right to be here should see visa issuance suspended.
“But all we get from Labour are tough words. I urged them to immediately use the powers which the last government created some months ago, but nothing has happened.
“We should also cut overseas aid to countries not taking back their own nationals. This Labour government is too weak to take the steps necessary to protect our borders, and I see no sign of that changing any time soon.”
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