𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A backbench Labour MP has called for asylum processing centres to be established overseas to stop the small boats migrant crisis. Jo White, who leads a grouping of the party’s Red Wall MPs, told Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood people trying to enter the UK to claim asylum should only do so from other countries.

The MP for Bassetlaw made the call after over 100 of her colleagues on the left of the party urged the Home Secretary to rethink her stance on immigration. Ms White, who became an MP in 2024, wants Ms Mahmood to toughen her approach even more to see off Reform UK, which secured less than half the number of votes Labour did in Bassetlaw at the last general election, but is tipped by pollsters to fare well in May’s local elections.

Ms Mahmood unveiled a raft of measures aimed at reforming the UK’s immigration and asylum system on Wednesday.

The Home Secretary wants the statutory legal duty to provide asylum seekers with support and accommodation to be replaced with a conditional approach as she continues to make the UK a less attractive destination for migrants.

The Home Office was forced to deny such a move would act as a “pull factor” amid criticism from Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who described the measure as an insult to taxpayers.

Ms White, meanwhile, wants the Home Secretary to go further, telling the Telegraph she is one of many Labour MPs who want more from Ms Mahmood. She told the publication: “What Red Wall MPs want to see is the end of those boats coming across.

“For all our constituents it is the number-one issue – aside from the cost of living – that constantly gets raised on the doorstep. We know we have to solve it to get heard on anything else.”

A Home Office spokesperson pointed to the Home Secretary’s “sweeping reforms” to restore order to Britain’s borders and hailed a “record high” in enforcement action against “immigration criminals”. They said the action had stopped 40,000 attempts to reach Britain’s shores by small boat.

Ms White’s call suggests the Home Secretary faces a backbench revolt on both the left and right of her party over her shake-up of the asylum system.

Ms Mahmood said her party’s identity was being “bitterly” contested, but insisted Labour values were at the heart of her “firm but fair” migration reforms.

Charities expressed deep concern about Ms Mahmood’s plans. Mubeen Bhutta, of the British Red Cross, said: “This is a deeply worrying time for refugees and people seeking asylum.

“There is little evidence to suggest that making life harder puts people off coming to the UK, when they have been forced to flee their homes. In fact, evidence from where similar changes have been implemented shows it leads to real human suffering and holds back integration in communities.”