LONDON, NOV 23 (AFP/APP): Shabana Mahmood is the straight-talking, combative interior minister who is overhauling Britain’s asylum system and whose politics have been shaped by her Muslim faith and upbringing as a daughter of Pakistani-origin immigrants.
Dubbed “The Terminator” by The Spectator magazine and “the new hard woman of British politics” by Sky News, Mahmood is unapologetic about her attempts to slash migration to the UK.
“You may not always like what I do,” the 45-year-old warned fellow Labour MPs at the ruling party’s annual conference in September, shortly after she was appointed Home Secretary.
Mahmood, a former barrister, last week unveiled plans to cut protections for refugees, end automatic benefits for asylum seekers and extend the time before some regular migrants can apply for permanent status.
She said record levels of irregular migration were “tearing our country apart” and insisted her proposals would help “restore order and control”.
Mahmood rejects accusations from lawmakers on the left that she is “stoking division by using immoderate language”.
She believes soaring support for the hard-right, in part due to a failure to stop small boat arrivals of migrants to England, threatens people of colour.
In a stunning incident in parliament this week, she revealed she was “regularly” called a term of racist abuse long directed at people of South Asian origin, and “told to go back home”.
“It is I who knows, through my personal experience and that of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become.”
The 45-year-old was born and raised in the central English city of Birmingham, which has a large South Asian-origin community, to parents with roots in Kashmir.
Mahmood was introduced to politics at a young age — her father was a local Labour party organiser who would include his daughter as he talked tactics with other members over tea and samosas.
“Shabana would let them know exactly what to do, and when to do it,” former deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who was among the cohort, told the Guardian.
“She could see a problem and cut through it at a young age.”
