𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Andy Burham faces an outright revolt as Labour MPs threaten a “mutiny” over Shabana Mahmood’s controversial immigration plans. Divisions over the Prime Minister’s approval of the Jackdaw gas drilling and migration reforms are bubbling up 14 weeks into Mr Burnham’s premiership. Tory MP Esther McVey told the Daily Expresso podcast: “It’s no longer hope in everybody’s heart – it’s mutiny in all of his backbench MPs and Cabinet ministers’ minds.”

Home Secretary Ms Mahmood plans to extend the time before foreign workers can claim permanent residence in the UK under flagship immigration reforms. She wants to lengthen the qualifying period for settlement in the UK from five to 15 years, make changes to the appeals process and use AI to check the age of migrants arriving on small boats to determine if they are adults or children.

Ms McVey claimed disagreement over the new legislation led Labour MPs to boycott Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday in protest. She said: “They didn’t want to sit next to her (Mahmood)… She was there, isolated. Yes, she was defiant, but she is isolated, and she is shrinking as a figure.

“If she doesn’t manage to pull off this Bill, which has already been put on the back burner,… she too, like her Bill, might end up leaving the Cabinet.”

The MP for Tatton suggested Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, who was at PMQs, is “feeling very smug with herself” as the voice in the Commons of the trade unions, which oppose Ms Mahmood’s reforms.

Tensions in the Cabinet over the policy surfaced previously when Ms Rayner, earlier this year, publicly attacked the prospect of backdating Ms Mahmood’s plans.

Another absentee on Wednesday was Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh, who, up until yesterday, refused to say if she backed the Home Secretary’s plans. A squirming Ms Fahnbulleh told Sky on Wednesday that immigration reforms should be based on compassion and recognising people’s contributions to the UK, but stopped short of expressing support for Ms Mahmood’s reforms.

Ms Fahnbulleh later rowed back on her comments, saying she fully supports her Cabinet colleague’s position on immigration reform.

Ms McVey said whips are feeling conflicted as the number of Labour MPs opposed to the Bill has increased from 14 to some 80-100. She added: “I’m being told that junior ministers are working with backbench MPs and whips to destroy this Bill.

“They want to kill the Bill, and I think this is going to be very difficult for Andy Burnham because he won’t know what to do.”

The Tory MP said the PM has always tried to be friends with everybody, but is now trying to secure concessions to exempt care workers from the reforms on settlement. Ms McVey concluded: “I think this Bill will go or be filleted and with it Shabana Mahmood… I believe [Mr Burnham]’s rattled. He’s lost control of his party.”

Mr Burnham on Friday (October 23) said he strongly supports indefinite leave to remain as a “right to be earned”, but stopped short of committing to bringing in all of Ms Mahmood’s reforms.

Asked if he would commit to sticking to the plans, Mr Burnham said: “We’re in a position where we’ve been consulting on those reforms, and we will come forward with our decisions soon.

“But I strongly support the Home Secretary when she says settlement is a right to be earned through contribution, and that will be the principle that guides our reforms.”

Speculation has mounted that the proposals to increase the wait for claiming indefinite leave to remain for foreign care workers, in particular, could be watered down to avoid a Labour rebellion.