Overview
- Shabana Mahmood set out reforms she billed as the biggest since the 1950s, replacing indefinite leave to remain with a 30‑month temporary protection status and retaining powers to remove people once countries are deemed safe.
- Reports and briefings about seizing asylum seekers’ assets, including jewellery, were contested after Mahmood told MPs she was not proposing jewellery confiscations, leaving cost‑recoupment details unclear.
- A group of Labour backbenchers denounced the plans on humanitarian grounds, while opinion writers accused the Home Secretary of abandoning earlier positions.
- Conservative frontbencher Helen Whately said the measures do not go far enough and warned implementation will be constrained by Labour rebels and the UK remaining within the European Convention on Human Rights, though she signalled support for stronger border steps.
- Analysis highlighted close parallels with earlier Patel and Braverman measures, questioned the sequencing of only modest initial safe routes, and noted official data showing the UK was fifth in total asylum numbers and seventeenth per capita in the year to March 2025.