Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood swore at audience members who accused her of copying Reform UK's immigration policies during a live podcast recording in central London on Monday. Speaking to comedian Matt Forde at the Duchess Theatre, Mahmood told a heckler to 'fuck right off' after he thanked her for 'out-Reforming Reform'. Two other protesters shouted 'refugees welcome' as security removed the man.
Mahmood said the hecklers were trying to 'delegitimise' her views and those of millions of Britons concerned about immigration. 'It's also a way of delegitimising the perfectly valid, legitimate views of millions of people in this country, including ethnic minorities,' she said. 'You're trying to put me in a box, which includes a lot of people who think I don't even belong in my own country.'
The home secretary accused 'white liberals' of racism, saying: 'How dare you, a brown woman, say a thing that we white liberals think you're not allowed to say? Well I'm saying it.' However, campaign group Green New Deal Rising disputed her characterisation, stating the man who began the disruption is a person of colour with a migrant background.
Mahmood faces internal pressure over hardline asylum plans, including ending permanent refugee protection, requiring refugees to wait 20 years for settlement, and doubling the time for most overseas workers to gain permanent residency from five to 10 years. She has claimed the overhaul will save £10bn, but the IPPR thinktank noted government estimates show dependents make net positive financial contributions.
