𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Shabana Mahmood said she is regularly called a “f****** P*** and told to go back home” in a Commons clash over her migration plans. The Home Secretary hit back at claims by the Lib Dems that she was “stoking division” with her language.

Speaking in the House of Commons this evening, Ms Mahmood said: “I wish I had the privilege of walking around this country and not seeing the division that the issue of migration and asylum system is creating across this country. Unlike him, unfortunately, I am the one that is regularly called a f****** P*** and told to go back home.”

Ms Mahmood said: “It is I who knows, through my personal experience and that of my constituents, just how divisive the issue of asylum has become in our country.”

“This system is broken, and it is incumbent on all Members of Parliament to acknowledge how badly broken the system is and to make it a moral mission to fix this system so that it stops creating the division that we all see,” she added.

She added: “We’re not saying that we will take everything away and leave that individual destitute, but I think contribution is a fair principle here.”

She was responding to Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson after he challenged her language.

He said: “What is not helpful is the Home Secretary claiming that the country is being torn apart by immigration.

“Acknowledging the challenges facing our nation is one thing, but stoking division by using immoderate language is quite another.”

Mr Wilkinson branded the Government’s plans to require asylum seekers to contribute to costs as “cruel, state-sponsored robbery”, insisting it will not fix the system.

It came as Ms Mahmood announced reforms aimed at deterring illegal migration to the UK.

The Home Secretary set out tougher plans to overhaul asylum policy, which have already sparked a backlash from Labour backbenchers.

Ms Mahmood told MPs it was the “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s generous asylum offer, compared to other European countries, is drawing people to UK shores, and for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.

She said: “The pace and scale of change has destabilised communities. It is making our country a more divided place.

“There will never be a justification for the violence and racism of a minority, but if we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred.

“I have no doubt about who we really are in this country. We are open, tolerant and generous.

“But the public rightly expect that we can determine who enters this country, and who must leave.

“To maintain the generosity that allows us to provide sanctuary, we must restore order and control.”