Home secretary will defy ‘plain wrong’ calls from unions and leftwing MPs that she is alienating Muslim voters
Shabana Mahmood will press on with hardline immigration policies despite calls for a reversal from unions and left-leaning Labour MPs after the Green party’s byelection victory.
Senior Labour sources insisted that the home secretary would continue to roll out changes to asylum policy, dismissing as “plain wrong” claims that it would further alienate Muslim voters.
Andrea Egan, the general secretary of Unison, the biggest Labour-affiliated union, called on Friday for the government to change course and defend “migrants and refugees” after the party came third behind Reform UK in Gorton and Denton, Greater Manchester.
Diane Abbott, the independent MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, told the Guardian that Labour should “turn to more progressive policies on issues such as immigration and asylum”.
