The UK could suspend visas from countries that do not “play ball” and agree to take back migrants, the new home secretary has said as she set out her hardline approach to tackling illegal immigration.
On her third day in the job, Shabana Mahmood said she would do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings.
And she hit out at the “utterly unacceptable” number of migrants arriving in the UK on dinghies, after the number of Channel crossings this year passed 30,000 in record time.
Her move is the most significant appointment made by Keir Starmer in the reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation.
The government is battling to contain the crisis caused by the highest ever numbers recorded at this point in the year, as Nigel Farage’s Reform seeks to capitalise on the issue.
Ms Mahmood said she had been discussing the suspension of visas with the UK’s “Five Eyes” allies, a partnership on intelligence sharing with the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
She said: “For countries that do not play ball, we’ve been talking about how we can take much more co-ordinated action between the Five Eyes countries.
“For us, that means including possibly the cutting of visas in the future, just to say, you know, we do expect countries to play play ball, play by the rules, and if one of your citizens has no right to be in our country, you do need to take them back.”
Vowing to do “whatever it takes” to stop small boat crossings, she insisted the move was a ‘Labour policy’.
She said: “This is a Labour government with Labour policy and Labour proposals.
“We’ve been looking at this for some time. It’s been discussed already across the government and I’m very clear that there has to be a strong approach to maintaining our border, and that does mean saying to countries who do not take their citizens back that we’re not simply going to allow our laws to remain unenforced.”
The UK has returns agreements with countries including Albania, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Iraq, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Georgia, Somalia, Serbia and Algeria.
Ministers also recently agreed a returns deal with France, although that could evaporate if the French government collapses, as expected.
Ms Mahmood is also planning a wider crackdown on immigration policy and is expected to set out plans this week to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks, after a summer of protests over migration.
She is working with the Ministry of Defence to identify sites to house people, with military planners scoping out potential sites, defence secretary John Healey confirmed on Sunday.
Ms Mahmood, who was the justice secretary before Sir Keir’s reshuffle, said: “Rebuilding our reputation on the world stage is how we tackle serious organised crime and secure our borders.”
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