Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is facing a critical test of her immigration strategy, as new figures reveal a record level of enforcement action against illegal working, while the persistent challenge of small boat crossings threatens to undermine her progress.
A Record of Raids and a New Social Media Push
In the past 18 months, immigration enforcement teams from the Home Office have conducted more than 17,400 raids targeting businesses like nail bars, car washes, and barbershops suspected of employing illegal migrants. This marks a significant uptick in operational activity since Labour took office.
To publicise this crackdown, Mahmood has opted for a modern approach, eschewing the staged photo-ops favoured by some predecessors. Instead of personally accompanying a dawn raid, she launched a new Home Office TikTok account named Secure Borders UK. Its first video showed migrants being detained, with the strapline "Restoring order and control to our borders".
The Shadow of Priti Patel's 'Tough Talk'
This public relations strategy inevitably draws comparisons with former Conservative home secretary Priti Patel. Patel was known for highly visual demonstrations of toughness, such as wearing a branded jacket on raids. However, her tenure was characterised by a gap between rhetoric and results.
Under Patel, key indicators often moved in the wrong direction, with numbers of people working illegally and subsequent removals failing to align with promises. Fanciful policies like wave machines in the Channel or offshore processing centres on remote islands came to nothing. Notably, legal immigration quadrupled during her time in office, contradicting core Brexit pledges.
Labour's Measured Progress and Unfinished Business
By contrast, Shabana Mahmood's record shows tangible, if incomplete, progress. Legal immigration is now falling, partly due to late changes by the previous government. Enforcement statistics for raids, arrests, and removals indicate a more serious application of existing laws compared to the Tory administration.
However, the enduring symbol of uncontrolled borders—the small boats—remains. A pilot scheme to return migrants to France has sent about 200 people back in three months, a rate far higher than the Conservatives achieved but dwarfed by the approximately 800 arrivals per week seen last year.
Mahmood's "Blue Labour" stance has successfully countered assumptions that her party is soft on immigration. Yet, as long as boats land on the Kent coast, public perception of control will be fragile. The Home Secretary risks falling into the "Priti Patel trap" of over-promising and under-delivering on the issue voters care about most. Her record on enforcement is stronger, but the ultimate test of stopping the crossings is yet to be passed.
