By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 00:01 BST, 30 September 2025 | Updated: 08:34 BST, 30 September 2025
Shabana Mahmood has pledged to 'fight' the Home Office to achieve her aims as she described her new department as 'not fully fit for purpose'.The Home Secretary, three weeks into her role, said she wanted to avoid its failings curtailing her own career.And in a wide-ranging conversation she also revealed her reservations at Labour's move to create an official definition of Islamophobia and set out her opposition to cousins being allowed to wed.It came after her migration crackdown received a lukewarm reception in the main hall of the party conference, with her telling delegates: 'In solving this crisis, you may not always like what I do.'Ms Mahmood announced yesterday that so-called 'indefinite leave to remain' (ILR) for some immigrants will come with a new set of conditions including voluntary work and keeping a clean criminal record.But it later emerged that it will not apply to more than a million foreigners who came to Britain over the past five years.Those who came to the UK legally during that period may have to wait longer than the current five years to qualify for ILR, however. Her proposals will come in at an as yet undefined point and apply to migrants who arrive after that.Ms Mahmood is reviewing proposals set out by Labour in May under former home secretary Yvette Cooper which suggested extending the qualification period to ten years. Shabana Mahmood, pictured speaking at the Labour conference, pledged to 'fight' the Home Office to achieve her aims as she described her new department as 'not fully fit for purpose'In her conference speech, she warned that migration levels must be addressed to avoid driving Britons towards more extreme politics. Some Britons were being pushed towards more extreme views because they feel the country is 'spinning out of control', she added.And later she vowed to take on her own department to get policies through. 'I don't think it's fully fit for purpose yet,' she said at a fringe event.Her words echoed remarks made in 2006 by then Labour home secretary John Reid when he said the Home Office was 'not fit for purpose', before it was split in two.She added: 'I keep hearing from everybody about the fact that the Home Office is a graveyard of political careers. Obviously, I don't want that to be the case with me. 'I have an important job to do, and it's a job I want to do for our country. I guess I'd say it's a bit of a fight. So Home Office versus Shabana: choose your fighter.'At the event organised by the Spectator magazine, the first Muslim women Home Secretary indicated her reservations about her party's move to create an official definition of Islamophobia.Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner set up a working group to come up with a definition, prompting concerns that it could lead to blasphemy laws by the back door. Ms Mahmood said: 'It might be the case that everyone is safer when you're all subject to the same law. It's imperative that whichever solution you come to it doesn't create further conditions that increase hatred rather than deal with it.'The Home Secretary also set out her opposition to cousins being allowed to wed – a practice followed by some Muslim groups and which is legal under UK law. She said 'I don't support cousin marriage myself' because it was 'not obvious forced marriage... but a little bit on that trajectory'.The Mail on Sunday this weekend revealed an NHS report that backed first-cousin marriage, sparking a backlash.
