Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has sought to define Labour’s immigration policy around “fairness”, combining tougher settlement rules and a crackdown on irregular migration with the creation of new legal routes for refugees fleeing war and persecution.
Speaking at Labour’s annual conference, Mahmood said her first year in office had been guided by a principle rooted in her family’s own migration history.
Her parents, who came to Britain from Kashmir, had moved to the UK because they believed they would receive “a fair shot at a better life”, she said.
“They were, largely, welcomed to this country, because most Brits thought it was right to welcome people who come here legally, build a life, and contribute to our nation.”
Mahmood argued that perceptions of fairness were crucial to maintaining social cohesion, warning that when people believe the system is unfair, “people turn inwards” and Britain becomes “smaller and colder for those who look like me”.
“My job is to create that fairness, in our migration system, and on our streets,” she said, adding that this was necessary “to hold this country together at a time when others seek to divide us”.
The Home Secretary described small boat crossings as “not fair”, arguing that restoring public confidence required greater control of the border.
“We are turning the tables on the criminal gangs,” she said, pointing to the lowest number of small boat arrivals during a summer since 2021.
At the same time, Mahmood formally unveiled plans to expand legal routes for refugees, arguing that compassion and border control were not mutually exclusive.
“Fairness is also about offering sanctuary to those who are truly fleeing war and persecution,” she told delegates.
She said charities and non-profit organisations would be able to sponsor refugees through new community and student routes, with applications opening in October and a work-based equivalent expected next spring. The first arrivals are expected next autumn.
The government will also reopen the UK Resettlement Route in partnership with the UN, with a focus on vulnerable refugees.
“A quarter will be Afghan women and girls, fleeing persecution under the Taliban, and Palestinians who have fled the horrors of Gaza,” Mahmood said.
But the government is simultaneously consulting on proposals to double the period most migrants must spend in Britain before becoming eligible for indefinite leave to remain, from five years to 10.
The proposals have exposed tensions within Labour, with Housing Secretary Angela Rayner previously arguing that changing the rules for people already in Britain could “change the goalposts”.
Mahmood acknowledged the criticism but said ministers would seek to balance competing definitions of fairness.
“We will come to a position that balances fairness for those who came here legally, and fairness to British citizens across this country,” she said.
The Home Secretary also used her speech to highlight reductions in several categories of serious crime, claiming murder had fallen by 9 per cent, serious violence by 11 per cent and knife robberies by 16 per cent since Labour entered government.
But she acknowledged significant differences in policing outcomes across the country, with people in some areas two-and-a-half times more likely to have a crime solved than those elsewhere.
Shop theft, she conceded, remained “still too high” and “must fall further”.
Mahmood linked immigration and public safety to a broader argument about social cohesion, warning that fear could drive communities to “bolt the door to outsiders and those who are different from us”.
She condemned recent anti-migrant protests involving masked demonstrators, saying she had experienced “the same shiver of revulsion and fear at the sight of masked racists, dressed all in black”.
She also acknowledged fears among British Jews amid rising antisemitism.
“This country is only truly fair when we are all safe within it,” Mahmood said.
“I know there is more we must do, to tackle the threats ranged against us.”
Her central message was that Labour’s immigration policy would attempt to combine tighter controls with legal alternatives — restoring what she described as public confidence in the system while preserving Britain’s obligations towards people fleeing persecution.
“By restoring safety, security and control, we are restoring fairness and creating space for compassion, tolerance, and generosity,” she said.
Leave a Comment