Home secretary admits illegal immigration numbers still 'too high' under Labour - but says Farage can 'sod off'

The home secretary has admitted the UK's illegal immigrant numbers are "too high" - 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.

Read more: Everything you need to know about Labour's plans

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the plan was much like something his party would put forward, and said Ms Mahmood sounded like a Reform supporter.

The home secretary responded with her usual frankness, telling Rigby: "Nigel Farage can sod off. I'm not interested in anything he's got to say.

"He's making mischief. So I'm not going to let him live forever in my head."

You might need our support, says Badenoch

Her plans have also been tentatively welcomed by the Conservatives, with Kemi Badenoch suggesting the home secretary work with her in case of a rebellion by Labour MPs.

The backing of Tory MPs could "come in handy", Ms Badenoch said.

The government's attempts to cut the welfare bill earlier this year were thwarted by its own backbenchers, and the proposals announced on Monday have already attracted backlash from some on the left of the Labour Party.

Fury on the backbenches

Speaking in the House of Commons, Nadia Whittome MP called Ms Mahmood's plans "dystopian" and "shameful", and pointed out they enjoyed the support of far-right activist Tommy Robinson.

Richard Burgon MP said she should change course now rather than be forced into a U-turn later, and Olivia Blake MP told Sky News the policies were "cruel" and "inhumane".

Sarah Owen MP compared Ms Mahmood's policies to those of former Home Office minister Robert Jenrick, now the shadow justice secretary who's also been accused of a tilt to the right in a bid to woo Reform voters.

Read more:
How the UK and Denmark's immigration policies compare

Mahmood's warning to Labour MPs

But Ms Mahmood has warned her colleagues that disrupting her bid to reform the asylum system - thus hoping to bring down the number of small boat crossings - risks "dark forces" coming to prominence.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday evening, Ms Mahmood said: "If we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred."

She later told Beth Rigby that Reform wanted to "rip up" indefinite leave to remain altogether, which she called "immoral" and "deeply shameful".

The home secretary, who is a practising Muslim, was born in Birmingham to Pakistani parents.

Earlier, in the Commons, she said she sees the division that migration and the asylum system are creating across the country. She told MPs she regularly endures racist slurs.

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