With Reform exploiting tensions in society, Mahmood must address frustration about immigration
Shabana Mahmood already showed she was willing to defy convention when she praised Margaret Thatcher for smashing a political mould – now she’s making history as the first Muslim woman to hold one of Britain’s great offices of state.
It’s not the new home secretary’s only moment as a surprising politician. Mahmood has spoken of how she has a “natural affinity for the faith, flag and family element of Blue Labour”, a small socially conservative fraction of the party which now holds some sway in No 10.
She has previously spoken about what it is like to live in an area where crime feels out of control. While she was growing up in Small Heath in inner-city Birmingham in the 1980s and 90s, her father kept a cricket bat behind the till of the family shop to fend off would-be robbers.
Her views on community and social responsibility appear to be what have won her the job from Yvette Cooper, who has been doing years of hard work in the brief and was working on a new deportation deal with Germany to bring down small boat arrivals.
