01. June 2025

Communities Secretary reaffirms government's commitment to asylum reforms amid Labour backlash

Communities Secretary Steve Reed has emphasized that the government is “absolutely committed” to pushing through major asylum reforms, despite facing backlash from some Labour MPs. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced a series of changes, including requiring refugees to wait 20 years for permanent residency rights and increasing deportations of families whose asylum claims have been denied.

Deporting children has proven controversial among several Labour figures, including MP Stella Creasy, who said it is “not the British way”, and peer Lord Dubs, who criticized the practice of “using children as a weapon”. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch stated the proposals did not go far enough but suggested her party could offer support to get them through Parliament.

Over the past year, the government has been forced to U-turn on some of its policies – including welfare cuts and reductions to the winter fuel payment – after objections from its own MPs. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Reed said the government was aiming to create a “fair, tolerant and compassionate” asylum system.

Asked about disquiet within his own party, the communities secretary responded: “We are absolutely committed to [the plans]… We can’t continue like this; it is tearing the country apart in many ways.”

Reed highlighted the “perverse incentives” in the current system, which he said were encouraging families to cross the Channel in small boats.

“We know that we have to end this vile trade in human lives,” he said.

“Over the last year, 14 children who were put on those dangerous dinghies and pushed out into the English Channel lost their lives when those boats capsized…

“The current system creates perverse incentives for people to put children on a boat where their life is in danger and we cannot tolerate that.”

How serious is Labour backlash over asylum plans?

Key takeaways: What are the proposed asylum system reforms?

Unprecedented plan for asylum system sees government walk tightrope

On Monday Mahmood told MPs her plans would “restore order and control” to the asylum system.

Under her reforms, refugee status will be temporary and reviewed every 30 months, with refugees returned if their home country becomes safe. Refugees will need to be resident in the UK for 20 years before they can apply for permanent residence – up from the current five years.

New safe and legal routes will also be established, with an annual cap on numbers and the right to settle permanently considered after 10 years for those arriving through these channels.

The government is also developing plans to remove support from families who have had their asylum claims rejected but have not left the country to encourage them to depart, and is considering forced deportations if they refuse.

Around 20 Labour MPs have publicly criticized the proposals, with more raising concerns privately. Olivia Blake, MP for Sheffield Hallam, accused Mahmood of stoking division by saying refugees “have won a golden ticket” if they obtain refugee status in the country after fleeing “violence, war and persecution”.

Steve Witherden, MP for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr, called on the government to “lead with compassion and fairness, not forcing some of the most vulnerable in our society to live in limbo for two decades”.

Stella Creasy, the Labour MP for Walthamstow, said she agreed the asylum system needed reform but had concerns about the measures, particularly deporting asylum seekers’ children who “think of this as home”.

“I think the British public want to see people being able to contribute; they recognize that if you have been here 5-10 years and your children think of this as home, forcibly detaining you and deporting you is not the British way forward,” she told the BBC’s World Tonight programme.

Labour peer Lord Dubs, who fled to the UK on the Kindertransport to escape the Nazi pogroms, said he was “depressed” by the government adopting such a “hardline” approach, which he said would not “deter people from coming here”.

“To use children as a weapon as the home secretary is doing is a shabby thing,” he told the Today programme. “We are a better country than that.”

In the Commons, Mahmood said it was an “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s generous asylum offer compared to other European countries was drawing people to UK shores, and that for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.

Speaking to the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason, Mahmood insisted she was “not motivated by what other political parties are saying or doing” but because “it’s a moral mission for me”.

“If we don’t win this argument… we will lose public support for having an asylum system at all and therefore we’ll lose something brilliant about this country,” she said.

“I’m not willing to stand by and let this broken system create more division in our country, and I’m not willing to cede this territory of secure borders to parties of the far right, the hard right, or anybody else.”

She acknowledged that some Labour MPs had concerns but insisted “the vast majority of my colleagues agree with me”.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said he was “moderately welcoming” of some of the changes, such as reforming rather than scrapping the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, he was concerned about the “workability” of the Home Office reviewing refugee statuses every two-and-a-half years.

Badenoch said the measures did not go far enough, adding that leaving the ECHR was necessary to address the problem.

The Conservative leader said: “The fact is, we have looked at this issue from every possible direction, and the reality is that any plan that doesn’t include leaving the ECHR as a necessary step is wasting time we don’t have.”

Speaking at a Reform UK press conference in central London on Tuesday, party leader Nigel Farage said he agreed “rhetorically” with most of what Mahmood was doing, joking she might be the “next defector” to his party.

“Despite her protestations, I thought a lot of what Shabana Mahmood said yesterday was driven directly by fear that Labour are losing votes to Reform,” he said, adding her focus should be broadened to legal migration, which he claimed is “doing enormous damage to the British economy”.

Green Party leader Zack Polanski criticized the government’s plans, branding the proposals “extreme” and “inhumane”.

“Ultimately, this country does not have a problem with immigration. It has a problem with inequality,” he told Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live.

Do you have any views, comments or questions about this story?

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It’ll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Police bullied me into admitting murder, says man wrongly jailed for 38 years

UK inflation rate falls for first time since March to 3.6%

‘Scotland cash in almost 30 years of glorious failure as dreams come true’

‘It would have been better if they’d killed me’: A forgotten war destroying women’s lives

On the front line of Europe’s standoff with Russia’s sanction-busting shadow fleet

MP’s aide reported suspected China LinkedIn approach

First kiss dates back 21 million years, say scientists

Epstein saga reveals Republican rifts - and the power of Trump’s base

MI5’s ‘Chinese spies’ alert and Trump defends MBS

‘I worked, I paid taxes - then the bank took my home’

Baby Shark: How a 90-second clip created a $400m business

Tech Decoded newsletter: Follow the world’s top tech stories and trends - sign up

Police bullied me into admitting murder, says man wrongly jailed for 38 years

‘I worked, I paid taxes - then the bank took my home’

Our son’s about to turn three - finding new childcare has left us at our wits’ end

MI5’s ‘Chinese spies’ alert and Trump defends MBS

Hotel adverts banned over misleadingly cheap rooms

Release of Epstein files awaits Trump’s signoff after clearing Congress

MP’s aide reported suspected China LinkedIn approach

‘Scotland cash in almost 30 years of glorious failure as dreams come true’

Tech giant seeking $1.7bn from Mike Lynch’s estate after yacht death

Epstein saga reveals Republican rifts - and the power of Trump’s base

Watch Nicôle Lecky’s provocative new drama

Which celebrity will stand the heat in the kitchen?

Antiques experts search for their latest treasures

Jools Holland celebrates Walking to New Orleans