Refused asylum seeker families will be offered up to £40,000 to leave Britain under pilot scheme, says Shabana Mahmood – UK politics live
Small number of failed asylum seekers will be offered ‘increased incentive payment’, says Mahmood
A small number of asylum seekers whose claims are rejected will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain under a pilot scheme, Shabana Mahmood announces.
The home secretary says the government would seek to echo reforms introduced in Denmark, where she said there had been “great success” in using incentives.
She says:
This government will now pilot a similar model for families who are failed asylum seekers, a small number of whom will now be offered an increased incentive payment of £10,000 per person and up to a maximum of £40,000 per family.
These incentives will bring a “significant saving” to the taxpayer if they prove effective, she said.
She adds:
Where a voluntary removal is refused, we will escalate to an enforced removal for those who can be returned to their safe home country.
We are now consulting on precisely how the removal of families with children must take place in a way that is humane and effective.
For too long, families who have failed their claims have known that we are not enforcing our rules, which created a perverse incentive to make a channel crossing with children in a small boat it.
Key events
The Guardian’s policy editor Kiran Stacey asks the home secretary how much force she is willing to see border officials use against children under her pilot scheme if families are unwilling to leave voluntarily.
Shabana Mahmood says a “targeted consultation” is underway, which includes looking at how best to handle the removal of children.
She says:
There are well-used legal tests for how to do so in a way that is neccessary but also proportionate and how to best judge that and also how to best scruitinise that.
I’d expect the principles that underlie this sort of work in other parts of the public sector to inform the approach that we take in immigration as well.
But that is why, in the end, a voluntary removal is always the best option for all concerned.
And that is the end of the home secretary’s press conference in which she outlined her reforms to create a “firm but fair” asylum system that works for “hard-working” British people.
Asked whether the hard right has “already won” and is setting the agenda for the Labour government, Mahmood says she is “coming up with Labour answers to problems our country faces”.
She adds:
We promised to control our borders in our manifesto. Of course we talked about the gangs that are operating and we’ve taken huge action on that … we’ve disrupted up to 40,000 crossing being made.
Mahmood: Hard right government would not be restrained by ‘values like ours’
The home secretary says that without “restoring order to our borders,” Labour will allow a populist right-wing government to seize the narrative.
She says:
When fearful people turn inwards, their vision of this country narrows and their patriotism turns into something smaller, something darker. And ethnonationalism emerges.
The idea of a Greater Britain gives way to the lure of a little England and other voices. Voices to the far-right take hold.
If the left does not secure our borders, the hard right will be given the chance to try, and they will not be restrained by values like ours.
In a thinly-veiled attack on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, Mahmood warns that “they will pull up the drawbridge, those who have been here for decades legally with settled status will suddenly hear a knock on the door one night, bundled into the back of a van … and deported from this country that they have made their home”.
She then criticises Green party leader Zack Polanski for being “on the beaches of France, helping migrants on to small boats”.
She adds:
Farage calls for border control without fulfilling our humanitarian and international duties.
Polanski calls for the most expensive and expansive migration policies anywhere in the world, without any attempt to control the border.
Nightmare on one hand, fairytale on the other.
Mahmood criticises “misinformation” about sharia law relating to London, while praising Sadiq Khan as she is questioned about Donald Trump’s rebukes of the city’s mayor.
The home secretary is asked about the US president’s criticism of the UK government over its decisions on Iran, as well as his attacks on Khan, his claim that London wants to turn to sharia law and his comments about immigration.
She says:
The US president will say some things that we agree with and others that we disagree with.
We are getting our immigration system under control. That is my job. That’s what I’ve been setting out today, and we will pursue that.
Others can comment as they wish, but what I am motivated by is resolving problems for citizens in our country.
On Khan, she adds:
And let me just say on Sadiq, I think he’s doing an excellent job as mayor of London and there is a lot of misinformation that is often put out about what’s happening in London, whether that’s on crime rates or whether that’s on things like sharia law, for example, which are just misinformation. That’s plain wrong.
And I think that Sadiq is doing a good job, and the proof of that is the fact that, you know, he’s won a mandate from the people of London on three separate occasions.
The UK is suspending visa routes for four countries where abuse has been “unacceptably high”, Mahmood says.
Those countries are Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan. Visit visas will also be imposed on St Lucia and Nicaragua.
She says:
I introduce all of these measures in an attemt to bring our systems of legal migration and asylum into line with this party’s values.
Upholding our international responsibilities, while securing our own borders.
Fair but firm, compassionate but controlled, rights earned through responsibilities fulfilled.
Small number of failed asylum seekers will be offered ‘increased incentive payment’, says Mahmood
A small number of asylum seekers whose claims are rejected will be offered an “increased incentive payment” of £10,000 per person and up to £40,000 per family to leave Britain under a pilot scheme, Shabana Mahmood announces.
The home secretary says the government would seek to echo reforms introduced in Denmark, where she said there had been “great success” in using incentives.
She says:
This government will now pilot a similar model for families who are failed asylum seekers, a small number of whom will now be offered an increased incentive payment of £10,000 per person and up to a maximum of £40,000 per family.
These incentives will bring a “significant saving” to the taxpayer if they prove effective, she said.
She adds:
Where a voluntary removal is refused, we will escalate to an enforced removal for those who can be returned to their safe home country.
We are now consulting on precisely how the removal of families with children must take place in a way that is humane and effective.
For too long, families who have failed their claims have known that we are not enforcing our rules, which created a perverse incentive to make a channel crossing with children in a small boat it.
Shabana Mahmood is now setting out her reforms to the asylum system and says the qualifying period for settlement should increase from five years to 10 “as a norm”.
She also explains that certain conditions will need to be met in order to qualify: a clean criminal record, no debt to the taxpayer, a history of being in work and paying taxes and higher standards of English language.
The first of the changes were made this week, meaning that a year from now, those who arrived on a visa seeking settlement will need to speak English to an A level standard.
She says:
I should also state for the record, we are talking about English as a foreign language.
A working knowledge of Shakespeare and Chaucer is very welcome but will not be a condition of settling in this country.
Command of the English language, however, will be.
Some people will be able to achieve settled status at or earlier than five years, she adds, including public servants, such as doctors and nurses.
Asylum system ‘not fair’ for ‘hard-working people’ in Britain, says home secretary
Mahmood says that the asylym system is “not fair” for “hard-working people” across the country.
She says:
Hard-working people across this country engaged in the daily struggle to make ends meet; they see a state that they pay taxes for but it is unable to stop a flow of dinghies across the channel.
And they see a state that is paying billions towards hotels like the one near them.
It doesn’t look fair because it’s not fair. And it erodes their trust in government.
The home secretary adds:
Without the trust of citizens in the state, there is no space for Labour values in any part of government to be realised.
She says that restoring control of the borders “is a necessary condition” for a Labour government to achieve anything.
Mahmood: ‘No denying’ it has been a difficult time for the Labour party
Shabana Mahmood said it was a “difficult time” for the Labour party, and that the party’s identity is being “bitterly” contested on issues like migration.
The home secretary said the party needed to be “more Labour” in a speech at the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research), telling the event:
It is a pleasure to be here and to be hosted by the IPPR, Britain’s leading progressive think tank, a fitting host to set out not just what this government is doing on asylum and migration, but why.
There is no denying that we meet at a difficult time for my party. It is a time when who we are and what we stand for is contested, sometimes bitterly, and nowhere is that contest more keenly felt than in the politics of migration.
She added:
I have, of late, been offered wise counsel on this topic from certain quarters. I have been told that we must, quite simply, be more Labour. Well, you know what? I happen to agree we should be more Labour.
Of course, we should be more Labour. The real question is, what does more Labour mean, because, in my view, more Labour doesn’t mean more Green, just like more Labour doesn’t mean more Reform.
More Labour means reconnecting with who we are, who we represent, and what we believe. That begins by understanding that the Labour party has always been a broad church.
She says “we will always offer protection to genuine refugees” and outlines how the UK has taken in Ukrainian and Hong Kong refugees.
She says “restoring control at our borders is not a betrayal of Labour values”. She says we must attract high-skilled workers. And that “the privilege of living in this country forever must be earned”.
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is now giving her speech at the IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) on changes to the asylum system.
The husband of a Labour MP and two other men have been released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of spying for China.
David Taylor, who is married to the Scottish Labour MP Joani Reid, is accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service.
Taylor, 39, and two other men aged 43 and 68 were arrested by counter-terrorism officers at addresses in London and Wales on Wednesday and have been released on bail until May, the Metropolitan police have said.
After Taylor’s arrest, Reid, who sits on the home affairs select committee and is MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, said she had “never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law”.
Mahmood hit back yesterday in a column for the Guardian at demands from senior labour movement figures for ministers to stop focusing on migration and to soften their attacks on the Green party.
The home secretary wrote:
Restoring order at our border is not just an embodiment of Labour values, it is the necessary condition for a Labour government to do anything at all.
Mahmood wrote that Labour’s vision should appeal to the mainstream and be “neither the nightmare of Farage’s borders, effectively closed, nor the Greens’ fairytale of borders effectively open”.
She also said the government planned to launch a new “safe and legal” route in the autumn for students seeking refuge.
Read her full column here:
Kiran Stacey
The home secretary’s speech this morning comes after Labour MP for Folkestone and Hythe, Tony Vaughan, co-ordinated a private letter to her, signed by 100 Labour MPs, expressing concerns about her “earned settlement” and temporary refugee status proposals.
The letter, which was sent on 4 March, calls for progressive changes which are rooted in Labour values.
It argues that some of the proposals undermine the government’s integration and cohesion objectives – like temporary refugee status, which leaves open the possibility of forced removal of settled refugees even after 20 years of lawful residence here.
It also argues that the proposals risk worsening child poverty, unfairly shifting settlement “goalposts”, and would harm the UK’s economic competitiveness by exacerbating skills shortages.
Mahmood set to outline ‘firm but fair’ asylum system in speech this morning
Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is due to give a speech later this morning as she looks to make the case for a “firm but fair asylum system”.
Up to 21,000 asylum seekers who have waited for a year for their claims to be processed could be allowed to enter the jobs market so they can support themselves, the Home Office has said, as part of a package of measures to be announced.
As the government seeks to empty asylum hotels, claimants who break the law, work illegally or are found to have enough assets to live without support will from June be ejected and lose their support payments.
The developments have been questioned by the Refugee Council for risking an increase in rough sleeping among those escaping war and famine.
There are about 30,600 people awaiting asylum claims living in roughly 200 hotels across the UK, and 107,000 people receiving asylum support, the Home Office said.
British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood walks outside of Downing Street, in London, Britain, March 3, 2026. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters
Defence secretary John Healey has arrived in Cyprus, where he had a meeting with their country’s counterpart, according to Reuters.
Healey has travelled to the island amid criticism from Cypriot officials over how Britain has acted to defend it from drone attacks linked to the war in the Middle East.
UK officials believe a drone that hit an RAF base in Cyprus evaded detection by flying low and slow when it was launched by pro-Iranian militia in Lebanon or western Iraq.
But an investigation has been unable to establish conclusively where the Shahed-type drone was launched from. The attack occurred during the Iranian retaliatory bombardment over the weekend after the US and Israel launched a wave of strikes on Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Badenoch says Britain should join US offensive action against Iran
Kemi Badenoch has said the UK should take offensive action against Iran after UK bases were attacked.
“We need to do what we can to stop the ability for these attacks to take place,” the Tory leader told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“I think that we should look at what our allies in the region are saying. Even if we’re not talking about Iran, Cyprus feels that we have not been helpful. It is extraordinary that Bahrain and Kuwait in the UAE are publicly criticising us…
“They think that we’re abandoning them.”
She continued:
If your principle is, we will only wait until we are attacked rather than dealing with imminent threats properly, then we will be in a lot of trouble.
Asked about concern over her enthusiasm for British involvement in the bombing of Iran, Badenoch said:
Being realistic is not gung ho. I don’t want a wider war.
But sometimes the best way to de-escalate a situation is to try and finish it quickly, rather than let it drag out because you don’t want to get involved.
Cabinet ministers ‘blocked’ Starmer from letting US use British bases for Iran strikes – report
Hello and welcome to the UK politics live blog.
Cabinet ministers, led by energy secretary Ed Miliband, blocked Keir Starmer from allowing Donald Trump to use British airbases for its attacks on Iran, it has been reported.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper and home secretary Shabana Mahmood rallied behind Miliband to oppose the prime minister granting the US permission to use bases in Gloucestershire and the Chagos Islands for bombing runs to the Middle East, according to the Spectator.
Starmer, reportedly backed by defence secretary Jon Healey, wanted to allow Trump to carry out “defensive strikes” against Iran but bowed to the pressure of vocal opponents in his cabinet.
The political journalist Tim Shipman wrote on X this morning that the US first made the request on 11 February but attorney general Richard Hermer advised that “his would be a breach of international law and Britain cannot facilitate, let alone participate”.
He said that the Ministry of Defence worked with and advised its US counterparts on how draft the request and, by Sunday afternoon, the national security council gave the green light for US to launch “defensive strikes” – more than 24 hours after its first “pre-emptive strike” on Iran.
It comes after it was revealed that the US did not share exact operational details or timings with the UK before the joint strikes with Israel on Iran, sources have told the Guardian.
The US decision to cut the UK out of the official loop on the airstrikes alongside Keir Starmer’s decision to decline permission for the US to use British military bases for the operation.
In other developments:
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John Healey has flown to Cyprus to calm the diplomatic fallout over a drone that evaded detection and hit an RAF base, which has prompted fury from local ministers. UK officials believe a drone that hit an RAF base in Cyprus evaded detection by flying low and slow when it was launched by pro-Iranian militia in Lebanon or western Iraq.
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Up to 21,000 asylum seekers who have waited for a year for their claims to be processed could be allowed to enter the jobs market so they can support themselves, the Home Office has said, as part of a package of measures to be announced on Thursday. As the government seeks to empty asylum hotels, claimants who break the law, work illegally or are found to have enough assets to live without support will from June be ejected and lose their support payments.
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One of the three men arrested on suspicion of spying for China is David Taylor, the husband of a Labour MP. Joani Reid, MP for East Kilbride and Strathaven, told Sky News in a statement: “I have never seen anything to make me suspect my husband has broken any law. I am not part of my husband’s business activities, and neither I nor my children are part of this investigation, and we should not be treated by media organisations as though we are.
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Andy Burnham has reignited hostilities with Keir Starmer’s Labour leadership, criticising what he described as the “bankruptcy” of the party’s approach to campaigning, a week after it lost the previously safe seat of Gorton and Denton. The mayor of Greater Manchester and former MP, regarded as a rival to Starmer, said Labour’s campaigning style prevented it from connecting with non-Labour voters and other progressive parties, as he evoked the system of clipboard-wielding canvassers going door to door with records of previous Labour supporters.
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The BBC is to call for an end to political appointments to its board as part of sweeping changes designed to protect its independence. The corporation will also demand that its royal charter be put on a permanent footing in an attempt to end the existential threat posed by having to negotiate with ministers over its future every 10 years.