Mahmood outlines safe migration routes plan to win Labor left | Immigration and Asylum

Shabana Mahmood will seek to shore up support for Labour’s Progressive Left’s controversial immigration bill. She is setting out plans to accelerate the opening of new safe and legal routes that would allow thousands of refugees to come to the UK.

The home secretary, a leading contender to retain the job if Andy Burnham becomes prime minister, will table legislation next week to set new limits on immigration claims on human rights grounds and under the Modern Slavery Act.

Burnham has been under pressure to clarify her position on Mahmood’s immigration policy, amid discontent among some Labor MPs and charities who believe the restrictions on asylum claims are too harsh.

Labor peer Alf Dubs on Friday called on Burnham to remove Mahmood from the Home Office and scrap the asylum policy for her “performative cruelty”.

The veteran Labor peer, who came to Britain as a six-year-old in 1939 to escape Jewish persecution in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said the home secretary’s talents would be “better used elsewhere in the Cabinet”.

“This is a reset moment for Labour, where we can move past the appalling language politicians use to describe refugees – ‘invaders’, ‘island of strangers’, ‘dividing our country’,” he said.

With Burnham set to take the top 10 spot next month, Mahmood has been trying to soften some of his hardline plans, including reassessing a separate proposal that would have made migrants wait 10 years instead of five to maintain indefinite leave.

She has also been involved in talks to exempt carers from the changes, briefed the Times on Friday on the proposals and has been implicated in a row with Keir Starmer over the future of Immigration Secretary Mike Tapp, who was accused of passing on the plans. Mahmood called on Starmer loyalist Tapp to be sacked, but the No 10 refused.

Sources in the Burnham camp said Mahmood was most likely to remain at the Home Office, but a Cabinet post had not yet been confirmed. The wider thrust of the Home Secretary’s immigration plans has the support of Burnham, but he has previously suggested he has reservations about indefinite leave in place to preserve changes that apply to immigrants already in the UK.

He is not expected to take office as prime minister until July 20, but has reportedly agreed that a new immigration bill should be submitted as planned on Tuesday.

The bill is due to be tabled in the coming days and will include two safe and legal pathways for refugees from the autumn: a sponsorship scheme, which would allow community groups to identify refugees to support, and a university student scheme. Applications will be accepted within a few months, with refugees arriving next year. The third plan would allow employers to sponsor refugees from next year.

Mahmood has previously said new safe and legal routes would allow hundreds of refugees to come to Britain each year, while Labor sources said the target was an influx of thousands of refugees a year.

A similar plan in Canada, based on community sponsorship, has allowed 400,000 refugees to enter Canada since 1979.

Analysis of the latest immigration statistics shows that the number of refugees arriving by safe and legal routes fell by 50% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. Just over 3,600 people received protection through resettlement schemes or family reunification.

In the UK, refugee family reunions, which allow families to reunite with their loved ones, were suspended by Mahmood in September 2025 and expected to resume in spring 2026. There is currently no date for when applications will reopen.

Critics say there are few safe and legal ways to travel to the UK to escape war and persecution, increasing the risk that families will be forced into dangerous journeys in a desperate bid to find safety and reunite with their loved ones.

A Labor source said: “The Home Secretary believes we must play a humanitarian role to provide safe harbor for people fleeing danger.

“So we will open a new, safe and legal route for genuine refugees. These routes will be small at first, but will grow over time. Once order and control is restored, thousands of refugees will eventually be able to build new lives here in the UK every year.”

Other measures included in the bill include:

Eliminates modern slavery protections for aliens who have committed and been sentenced for a crime, eliminating the previous 12-month threshold.

We reject last-minute modern slavery claims if they can be challenged earlier or if there is evidence of false documentation.

Except in exceptional circumstances, it only allows immigration applications to count towards the right to family life if the family member is a parent, spouse or child under the age of 18.

The new test aims to make clear that deporting criminal aliens is in the public interest and should only be blocked in the most exceptional circumstances. Going forward, applications for family reunification under the right to family life will need to be brought by a UK-based sponsor and not an overseas family member.

Every trafficked and exploited child is assigned a dedicated, independent guardian to support their care and recovery.

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Previewing the bill, Mahmood said: “It will close loopholes that have been too often abused, while also opening new legal pathways for genuine refugees. My goal is simple: to secure an asylum system not only for today, but for future generations.”

Dubs called on the Burnham-led government to uphold “human rights, compassion, fairness and equality” while defending UK border controls.

“This is Andy Burnham’s opportunity to correct some of the mistakes made by the Starmer government in relation to asylum seekers and refugees,” he said.

“For example, the proposed change to an indefinite stay that would apply retroactively to people who came here in good faith and under the rules is simply unfair and should be reconsidered.”

Dubs, 93, was transported to the UK on a Kindertransport train, which he later discovered was organized by London-based stockbroker Sir Nicholas Winton.

He said the proposed changes would leave children “out in the cold” and unable to find refuge in the UK.

Labor must control Britain’s borders, but do so “without cruelty”, Dubs said.

“These controls must be coupled with our commitment to fundamental rights and compassion for those most in need – not performative cruelty, such as when briefing the Home Office starts confiscating refugees’ jewels at the border, or using inflammatory language to accuse refugees of ‘dividing our country’.”

Joe Cobley, chief executive of Safe Passage International, said: “We expect this legislation to be introduced after the new Prime Minister is confirmed, but the Home Secretary seems determined to push ahead with these draconian plans for refugees.”

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Oxford University Migration Observatory, said the proposed scheme would appeal to potential sponsors hoping to attract specific members of the community.

“Once the details are finalized, I suspect there will be some debate about who will be allowed to sponsor. For example, can religious organizations such as churches or mosques be licensed as sponsors? And if so, can they be selected on the basis of sponsorship?” she said

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