Shabana Mahmood vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers in Labour immigration crackdown – latest

The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering a mansion tax that people can defer paying until moving house or after they die, in a plan to target property wealth.

The tax would be on properties valued at £2m and over.

The Treasury is looking to used the council tax system to revalue 2.4 million of the most valuable properties across bands F, G and H.

But concerns have been raised it will hit “asset-rich, cash poor” homeowners who could be forced to sell their homes to cover the cost. It will come son top of inheritance tax.

Reacting to the plan Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative party, told The Telegraph: “It is measures like this that don’t just kill growth, but kill the forces of aspiration and hard work that help build our economy.”

Angela Rayner is plotting against Keir Starmer and is already offering Cabinet roles to MPs in exchange for their support, The Telegraph reported.

The former deputy prime minister is “getting her ducks in a row” for a leadership bidding”, a source told the newspaper.

She has also joined Tribune – a pressure group of MPs – which currently has 70 members and could be used as a leadership vehicle for a candidate in the future.

But a source close to Ms Rayner claimed it’s “total rubbish” and that she is focussed on “representing her local community”.

The package of reforms is said to be inspired by Denmark’s system, which sees refugees given temporary residence permits, typically of two years, with no guarantee of getting a permanent visa.

Ministers have learned lessons from their strict asylum approach, where a government of the same political stripe as Labour has managed to remove incentives drawing people to the country, and has increased deportations of illegal migrants.

Senior Home Office officials went to Copenhagen to learn about the country’s asylum policy earlier this year.

The country has reduced the number of asylum applications to the lowest number in 40 years and successfully removed 95 per cent of rejected asylum seekers.

At the same time, Denmark remains a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, an international treaty which has drawn the ire of some on the right of politics, who say it hampers efforts to deport illegal migrants.

Denmark’s tighter rules on family reunions are also being looked at.

So far this year, about 39,075 people have arrived in the UK crossing the Channel in small boats, according to the latest Home Office figures.

The arrivals have already passed the number for the whole of 2024 (36,816) and 2023 (29,437), but the number is still below the total at this point in 2022 (39,929).

“This country has a proud tradition of welcoming those fleeing danger, but our generosity is drawing illegal migrants across the Channel,” home secretary Shabana Mahmood said.

“The pace and scale of migration is placing immense pressure on communities.

“This week, I will set out the most sweeping changes to our asylum system in a generation. We will restore order and control to our borders.”

She also told The Sunday Times newspaper the changes are “designed to essentially say to people: do not come to this country as an illegal migrant, do not get on a boat”.

The Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has vowed to make refugee status temporary as part of system overhaul.

As part of the crackdown asylum seekers could lose their automatic right to housing and financial support and they will need to wait 20 years before they can apply to settle permanently in the country.

It is part of a major overhaul of the immigration system, inspired by the Danish model, and comes as Labour battles to restore public trust in the asylum system to see off the threat of a Reform UK government.