What are the priorities for the new home secretary, Shabana Mahmood?
Shabana Mahmood’s promotion from lord chancellor to home secretary, making her the first Muslim woman in charge of a great office of state, comes with an in-tray groaning under the weight of perilous tasks.The MP for Birmingham Ladywood has won admirers for being an effective justice secretary and persuasive communicator while forcing through potentially explosive policies such as prisoners’ early release schemes and a new sentencing regime.But her ability to tackle her new responsibilities – which include immigration, national security and policing – will be seen as key to curbing the growing electoral threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.Since 2018, six Conservative home secretaries and Mahmood’s predecessor, Yvette Cooper, have tried and failed to curb a steady rise in the number of people attempting to make it to the UK by climbing into small boats in France.Critics have pointed out that the “push factors” of war, famine and the climate crisis are beyond the control of the UK government.
But at the general election, Labour pledged to “smash” people-smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossing numbers.Last month, Starmer faced criticism when it emerged that the numbers crossing the Channel in small boats since Labour came to power had surpassed 50,000.Gangs continue to operate relatively untroubled in northern France.Of Pakistani heritage and representing a multiracial constituency, Mahmood is expected to introduce policies that will make it harder to apply for asylum if an applicant has arrived by an “irregular” route, and make it easier to remove them.In an interview with the Spectator in May, Mahmood said: “I look at a community that I represent which is 70% non-white.
If you ask my constituents, they want a fair managed migration system.“Most of them will say they came in on the basis of really quite strict rules that they followed to come to this country to work and make a life for themselves.“I just don’t know why we’ve got ourselves in a tangle talking about migration controls on the left of politics, because it’s really pretty fundamental to the way a lot of our voters think.”Labour poured scorn upon the Conservatives during the last general election for housing asylum seekers in hotels and pledged to end the practice when in power.Thirteen months later, Starmer’s government faced violent demonstrations and voter disillusionment over the same issue.
After a surge in small boat arrivals, there has been an 8% rise to 32,059 in the number of people awaiting asylum decisions in the UK who are living in hotels.Demands for hotel closures multiplied after an asylum seeker staying at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman.Mahmood will be seeking to speed up the rate at which asylum claims are heard; make it harder for asylum decisions to be challenged; and will want to find alternative places to house asylum seekers as they wait for their cases to be heard.Ideas recently flagged by Labour include housing more people seeking asylum in disused military bases, and overhauling the asylum appeals system to replace it with independent adjudicators.Cooper also floated the idea of using disused flats, student accommodation, warehouses and “modular buildings on industrial sites” as an alternative to hotels.
Following Nigel Farage’s calls for a “net zero” immigration policy, and after the loss of a safe Labour seat to Reform in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, Starmer pledged in May to cut the number of people given leave to enter the UK by “regular” means.Mahmood will examine proposed changes to study and work visas and the introduction of English-language tests, which would result in about 100,000 fewer people entering the UK.In May, Mahmood defended the prime minister’s claim that without curbs, the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers” – a phrase which critics argued echoed Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech.Attempts to bring down net migration could face opposition from businesses concerned by skills shortages and universities concerned by a clampdown on overseas visas, while the NHS and care sector could ask for visas to allow more nurses and care workers from abroad.Mahmood will face a difficult decision on whether to double down on Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe as terrorists the group that had caused millions of pounds worth of criminal damage.
The government banned Palestine Action under terrorism laws after paint was daubed on jets at RAF Brize Norton.Police said the act caused £7m worth of damage.Membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is now a crime that can lead to up to 14 years in jail.The ban is being opposed by thousands of people concerned that the decision to proscribe the group is disproportionate and has widened the usual definition of terrorism.The Home Office has argued that the group is violent and the ban is covered by existing terror laws.
Mahmood knows that Labour’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict has lost votes in some areas,Her majority was reduced to about 3,500 voters in the 2024 general election against an independent candidate who accused her of failing Palestinian children,On Saturday, hundreds of people plan to risk being apprehended when they take part in the demonstration in London’s Parliament Square – with more than 1,000 set to sit silently, holding signs saying: “I oppose genocide,I support Palestine Action” – Scotland Yard said people showing support for the group “know their actions are unlawful”,
Marks & Spencer food chief calls for ‘concrete target’ on British produce
Marks & Spencer’s head of food has called on the government to set a legally binding “concrete target” to increase the proportion of food produced at home, as he warned that Britain was becoming “less and less self-sufficient”.Alex Freudmann, the managing director of the upmarket grocer’s food division, which works with 10,000 British farms, said: “If ministers are committed to domestic food supply, then they need to prove it, and that’s why we’re backing our farmers’ calls for a clear and concrete target to increase the proportion of food eaten in Britain that’s grown or reared in Britain.”At present, less than half of the food consumed in the UK is produced here and farmers say it should be much more to ensure security of supply amid global uncertainties including the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the climate crisis.“If [a target] was set down in law, just like the net zero targets are, it could tilt the balance towards farmers and decisions around planning or access to water, which are incredibly painful to navigate today,” Freudmann said.Ministers needed to “fight quickly” as discussions on the UK government’s food strategy restarted this month and “we’re getting less and less self-sufficient”
Revisions and rising unemployment: what to know about the US jobs report
A closely watched report on US jobs released on Friday gave signs of a cooling labor market.The economy added just 22,000 new jobs in August, coming in below expectations, while the unemployment rate ticked slightly up to 4.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the beginning of the year, more than 100,000 jobs were being added each month.Amid Donald Trump’s trade wars, tariffs have now been put on most foreign goods and prices have started going up
Head of UK’s beleaguered Alan Turing Institute resigns
The chief executive of the UK’s leading artificial intelligence institute is stepping down after a staff revolt and government calls for a strategic overhaul.Jean Innes has led the Alan Turing Institute since 2023, but her position has come under pressure amid widespread discontent within the organisation and a demand from its biggest funder, the UK government, for a change in direction.ATI said the search was already under way for a replacement for Innes, who held senior roles in the civil service and technology industry before her appointment.Government sources pointed to a letter sent by the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to ATI’s chair in July that demanded strategic change and indicated a need for new leadership.In the letter, Kyle said the institute should switch its focus to defence and national security and urged “careful consideration” on having an appropriate executive team in place for such a move
Quantum computing firm reaches $10bn valuation as investor interest builds
A British quantum computing entrepreneur has doubled the value of his stake in the business he founded to $2bn (£1.5bn), after the company achieved a $10bn valuation in its latest fundraising.Ilyas Khan, 63, is the founder of Quantinuum, a UK-US firm that announced on Thursday it had raised $600m as investor interest builds in the cutting-edge technology.Khan set up Quantinuum’s predecessor company, Cambridge Quantum, in 2014 before it merged with the US-based Honeywell Quantum Solutions in 2021.Khan, a former owner of his home town’s football club Accrington Stanley, is now chief product officer at the business and to date has not sold any shares since founding it more than a decade ago
Ellie Kildunne ruled out of England’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final after head injury
The England full-back Ellie Kildunne has been ruled out of the team’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against Scotland next Sunday because of concussion protocol.It was confirmed after the Red Roses’ win over Australia that Kildunne did not have a head injury assessment as she was immediately removed with concussion symptoms after hitting her head on the ground following a tackle. That means that the reigning world player of the year has to have a 12-day mandatory stand down period.If England reach the semi-finals Kildunne could play but that is dependent on her passing the return-to-play protocols. The Red Roses have Gloucester’s Emma Sing as their backup full-back, as well as versatile back Helena Rowland who can play in the position
Red Roses must relish unfamiliar pressure in quest for World Cup glory | Andy Bull
You can measure a good team by how many they’ve won, or you can measure them by how many they might have lost but didn’t. The Red Roses are well ahead on the first count, they’re on a 30-match winning streak now, and have suffered just the one, solitary, defeat in the last six years.But it’s less clear what their other tally is. Their one-point victory over France in the final match of this year’s Six Nations was the only time they’ve had to confront the possibility of losing in the last few months, and even in that match they led from start to finish.Which made the first half of this victory against Australia the most intriguing 40 minutes they’ve had in a long while
Google Pixel 10 review: the new benchmark for a standard flagship phone
‘Slap on the wrist’: critics decry weak penalties on Google after landmark monopoly trial
Juliet Congreve obituary
Google will not be forced to sell Chrome, federal judge rules
Trump fortune balloons by billions after family firm’s crypto token starts trading
Parents could get alerts if children show acute distress while using ChatGPT