Shabana Mahmood will set out plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks in one of the government’s first moves amid a major Labour cabinet reshuffle.
The newly appointed home secretary is working with the Ministry of Defence to identify sites to house people after a wave of protests outside migrant accommodation over the summer.
John Healey on Sunday confirmed he has sent military planners into the Home Office to scope out “military and non-military” sites to house asylum seekers.
“With the home office, I have been putting military planners into their border command and into their planning for the future, and we are looking at the potential use of military and non military use sites,” the defence secretary told Sky News.
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.
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 reform of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) within domestic law.
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 clearout, 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 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 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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