𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Shabana Mahmood has been accused of handing migrants a £40,000 “prize” to cross the Channel in small boats. Unveiling radical reforms to the UK’s crumbling asylum system, the Home Secretary offered 150 families living in hotels the “staggering” sum to voluntarily leave the UK.

And in an explosive speech, Ms Mahmood revealed that children will be deported if their families refuse to take the cash. But the huge “incentive” sparked fury, with critics warning it could convince more people to try to cross the Channel. Reform’s home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf declared: “They are not fleeing conflict, they are coming from France.

“They come because Tory and now Labour governments lay on a food bank for the world at British taxpayer expense.

“Free accommodation, free meals, free healthcare. The only way to stop this is to detain all of them and deport them.

“Unbelievably, Labour is increasing the incentive, by offering a staggering £40,000 package to illegals to leave voluntarily.

“That’s more than the median salary in Britain. As a prize for breaking in illegally. It’s a disgrace.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: “This is an insult to the British taxpayer.

“Shabana Mahmood has to resort to paying illegal immigrants to leave because she has utterly failed to forcibly remove them – only 6% of small boat arrivals have been removed under this Labour Government.

“Offering £40,000 to failed asylum seekers to leave the country will only reward and incentivise illegal immigration. If we exit the ECHR, we can deport all illegal immigrants without needing to pay them. But Shabana Mahmood is too weak to do this.”

Each person in 150 families will be offered £10,000 if they agree to leave within seven days – but the handouts are being capped at £40,000. They received the messages early on Thursday morning.

As part of the plan, the Home Office is consulting with experts on how to “physically handle children during the removal, where it is appropriate”.

A source said: “The average cost to a taxpayer, of each family, is £158,000 a year.

“They will have seven days to reply to that offer and then leave the country.

“Crucially, if they do not take this offer, we will look to forcibly remove them from the country. That includes children, but we will never separate parents from their children.

“This has been an incredibly successful model in Denmark, in terms of using incentives smartly to increase the removals of failed asylum seekers.

“We estimate, should the pilot be successful, we will save £20million for the taxpayer.”

They added that migrants from Vietnam pay between £15,000 and £35,000 to reach the UK, whilst Syrians pay £10,000.

This, a source close to the Home Secretary argued, shows that migrants won’t be able to make money from the scheme.

And Ms Mahmood, in a speech to the Left-wing think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: “For too long, families who have failed their claims have known that we were not enforcing our rules, which created a perverse incentive to make a channel crossing with children in the small boat.

“It is now on the parents in these families who can safely return to the home they came from to do the right thing.

“By accepting an incentive payment, rather than face an enforced return.”

Labour sources insisted Mr Yusuf has also vowed to pay migrants to leave the UK voluntarily.

The Home Secretary confirmed plans to boot migrants out of asylum accommodation and strip them of their cash if they break the law.

From June, the help will become “conditional” and only given to those “who genuinely need it and follow the law”.

Those who work in Britain’s black economy will also be thrown out of hotels, houses, flats and bedsits funded by taxpayers, alongside foreign criminals and those refusing to leave the UK voluntarily.

Some 30,000 migrants could lose their support, officials predicted.

She told the IPPR: “Once we have determined that somebody does not have a right to be in this country legally, it is essential that they leave.

“There is nothing fair about not enforcing our rules.

“Particularly as we know, many melt into illegal work, undercutting legal workers.”

Under Labour’s plans, migrants’ rights to permanent asylum will be scrapped.

Instead, they will be offered temporary status, which will be reviewed every 30 months.

If their country is deemed safe enough for them to return, they will be sent back. Only children who arrive in the UK unaccompanied will be exempt.

Until now, successful asylum seekers have been granted refugee status for five years and allowed to bring their families to the UK. They then got almost automatic fee-free permanent settlement with continued access to benefits and housing.

Refugees will also be required to “earn” their settlement rights by working and contributing to society.

They will have to wait up to 20 years before they can apply to settle in the UK – and up to 30 years if they arrived illegally via small boats across the Channel or by claiming asylum after overstaying work, student or visitor visas.