The issue of immigration, which all polls in the United Kingdom already indicate as the main concern of its citizens, has begun to cause internal cracks in the British left. At the moment, there is a majority of Labor MPs who today support the crackdown announced by the Interior Minister, Shabana Mahmood, which seeks to restrict access to the right to asylum with serious conditions. Because they fear that Reform, the far-right party led by Nigel Farage, will end up taking over every one of their constituencies. But in a few days the number of rebels in the party and in the parliamentary group has also grown – some of a moderate character – who have used high caliber words such as “disgusting”, “unjust”, “racist” and “cruel” to refer to the new strategy of Keir Starmer’s government.
“We are facing a serious problem and our moral obligation is to fix an asylum (granting) system that is causing a deep division throughout our country. For me it is a moral mission to put an end to this division, and I believe that our reforms can repair the system and unite citizens again”, Mahmood defended himself in parliament from the friendly fire coming from his parliamentary bench.
The minister is herself the daughter of Pakistani immigrants who arrived in the UK irregularly and a practicing Muslim.
Labor MP Nadia Whittowe, daughter of Indian Sikh immigrants from the Punjab region, was the first to attack the minister directly. He joined a protest chorus that now includes at least 17 authorized voices. “It is a shame that it is a Labor government that is stripping away the rights and protections afforded to people who have been victims of unimaginable trauma,” Whittowe charged. “How can we adopt policies of such blatant cruelty? Is the Government proud to have sunk so low as to have attracted the praise of Tommy Robinson (the leader of the UK’s most extreme far right)?
Much of the new measures officially announced this Monday were conveniently leaked by the Home Office over the weekend, to seize the lead in a debate that promises to be intense and dangerous for Starmer.
With the new model that it intends to promote, all those who arrive in the United Kingdom irregularly and successfully complete the asylum application procedure, as well as those who remain in the country once their entry visa has expired, will have to wait a period of 20 years before being able to acquire permanent residence. Until now the period was five years.
Furthermore, during this long waiting period, the Government will reserve the right to review the personal situation of the applicant every 30 months and, if it deems that conditions in the country of origin are safe again, it may expel those who had obtained asylum at that time.
“The idea that refugees with legal status can still be deported is unfair. Of course we need control of our borders, but if we decide to grant asylum to some people, we should welcome and integrate, and not create a perpetual limbo”, denounced MP Tony Vaughan on the social network X, accusing the government of using rhetoric similar to that of those who promote racism and division.
Jewelry and visas
The Ministry of the Interior has presented the reform as the most ambitious and drastic in terms of migration. And it combines a seemingly complex legal strategy with some wide-ranging proposals that have angered a certain sector of the workforce.
Faced with the siren song of Farage’s far right and the Conservative Party itself, who are demanding that Downing Street definitively break with the European Convention on Human Rights and stop submitting to the dictates of the Strasbourg Court, Minister Mahmood tries to negotiate with the other members of the Council of Europe a more flexible interpretation of articles 3 and 8 of the Convention, which respectively regulate the prevention of torture or inhuman treatment and the right to family unity, and which the British government considers used abusively by asylum seekers to appeal against their deportation.
In addition to promoting these legal changes, the Labor government has announced its intention to create independent bodies outside the justice system to specifically respond to legal appeals made by those whose asylum claims have been rejected.
Likewise, temporary immigrants will be required to have electronic identity documents, for greater control.
In addition to these legal proposals, other ideas in the announced reform have unnerved some Labor MPs, such as the fact that the government reserves the right to confiscate valuable assets in the hands of recently arrived immigrants, such as jewelery or vehicles, to help cover part of the costs of their future upkeep. Faced with criticism from Labor MPs such as Sarah Owen, who directly called the proposal “repugnant”, the Home Secretary, Alex Norris, reported to the BBC the case of an illegal immigrant and asylum seeker living in the United Kingdom who owned an Audi car and received almost 800 pounds a month (around 900 euros) from abroad.
“If they are able to own cars or electric bicycles, they should be able to contribute to their maintenance. But we have no intention of confiscating jewelry that has material significance,” Norris said, referring to possible marital alliances or personal heirlooms.
Finally, Minister Mahmood announced that the Labor government will stop approving entry visas for citizens of those countries that refuse to readmit deported immigrants, in line with the policy adopted by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Specifically, Downing Street pointed to Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics, a total of 111,000 people applied for asylum in the UK between June 2024 and June 2025. In turn, between March and March of these two years, 172,798 immigrants obtained this status.
