]Britain’s new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood began her tenure under immediate pressure Saturday, as over 1,000 illegal migrants crossed the English Channel on her very first day in office.
Mahmood, Britain’s first female Muslim Home Secretary, was promoted after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s forced reshuffle following Deputy PM Angela Rayner’s resignation over a tax scandal. Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, criticized for record-high crossings during her tenure, was moved to the Foreign Office, while Mahmood shifted from Justice Secretary to head of the Home Office.
Though legacy media has portrayed Mahmood as tougher on border security than her predecessor, her parliamentary voting record shows she has consistently opposed stricter asylum and immigration controls. Critics argue this undercuts Starmer’s promise of a tougher stance on migration amid mounting public anger.
Her rocky first day saw 1,096 migrants brought ashore at Dover, according to GB News, pushing total Channel arrivals past 30,000 so far this year. The influx comes as over 32,000 migrants are currently being housed in taxpayer-funded hotels across Britain, a policy that has fueled nationwide protests — especially after the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by an Ethiopian migrant in Epping.
Reports suggest Labour will expand Conservative-era plans to house migrants in camps on military bases rather than hotels. The government is also exploring deals with Germany and France under a “one in, one out” framework, allowing deportations of boat migrants in exchange for taking in selected asylum seekers.
There are also proposals to reinterpret the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to enable more deportations, though critics doubt Labour would fully withdraw from the treaty. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage blasted the government’s approach, saying: “I am more concerned about the rights of British people than those who come here illegally.”
