but said Nigel Farage can “sod off” after he claimed she sounded like a Reform supporter.Shabana Mahmood, speaking just after announcing a major policy change on migration, said she was “horrified” by the 27% increase in irregular arrivals in the year to June.
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, the home secretary said: “I acknowledge the numbers are too high, and they’ve gone up, and I want to bring them down.
“I’m impatient to bring those numbers down.”
She refused to “set arbitrary numbers” on how much she wanted to bring illegal migration down to.Earlier on Monday, Ms Mahmood announced a new direction in Labour’s plan to crack down on asylum seekers.
The “restoring order and control” plan includes:
- The removal of more families with children – either voluntarily through cash incentives up to £3,000, or by force;
- Quadrupling the time successful asylum seekers must wait to claim permanent residency in the UK, from five years to 20;
- Removing the legal obligation to provide financial support to asylum seekers, so those with the right to work but choose not to will receive no support;
- Setting up a new appeals body to significantly speed up the time it takes to decide whether to refuse an asylum application;
- Reforming how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is interpreted in immigration cases;
- Banning visas for countries refusing to accept deportees;
- And the establishment of new safe and legal refugee routes.-Sky News
