Immigration Row Heats Up as Starmer Moves to Outflank Farage

Reeling from a challenging relaunch, Sir Keir Starmer is now ready to take a stronger line on immigration as he scrambles to head off the rising clout of Nigel Farage.

Shaken and surprised by Angela Rayner’s resignation on Friday, the Prime Minister has moved quickly to reshape his ministerial ranks with fundamental transformation.

In tears, she admitted failing to pay enough tax on her new flat — and proceeded to resign as Deputy PM, Housing Secretary, and Labour’s deputy leader.

Among the biggest moves, Sir Keir pushed Yvette Cooper from Home Secretary to Foreign Secretary, installing Shabana Mahmood as the new face of the Home Office.

In a bold clear-out of the Home Office’s junior ranks, the Prime Minister has placed the small boats crisis right at the front in his battle with Reform UK.

Sir Keir is set to ramp up his Channel migrant policy, eyeing a complete overhaul of human rights law and a controversial plan to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks.

With Reform riding high in the polls, the Prime Minister is also under fire from record Channel crossings and a summer of angry protests outside asylum hotels.

A senior Cabinet figure confessed that Labour may need to make uncomfortable compromises to stem the surge of Mr Farage’s movement. 

Following heated and high-energy demonstrations outside migrant housing, Ms Mahmood is preparing to announce a controversial move—relocating people into Ministry of Defence sites.

On her first full day in the Home Office, Ms Mahmood, the former Justice Secretary, was immediately confronted with the enormity and significance of the task ahead.

Approximately 1,000 migrants reached the UK by small boat in just a single day, and French officials rescued 24 more attempting to make the crossing.

After months of protests, dozens of asylum hotels are expected to shut their doors.

After striking a deal with France, ministers are now on the verge of agreeing to a returns arrangement with Germany, The Telegraph reports.

“Nothing is off the table,” a government insider said, as Ms Mahmood steps into her new role running borders and asylum policy.

She has previously indicated she is open to reviewing human rights reforms within domestic law.

A Labour source told The Sunday Times that Ms Mahmood is set on a potential overhaul of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

They said she would be considerably more radical than her predecessor, Ms Cooper, and would “begin with the unthinkable and work backwards”.

During Reform’s conference in Birmingham, Mr Farage promised that, if elected, his party would end small boat crossings within two weeks of implementing new legislation.

He promises to pull the UK out of the ECHR and deport 600,000 asylum seekers within the first five years if Reform wins power.

Kemi Badenoch is set to promise leaving the ECHR at the Conservative conference next month.

In a Home Office shake-up, Sir Keir moved ex-borders minister Angela Eagle and ex-policing minister Diana Johnson to new roles elsewhere.

Sarah Jones returns to policing, a post she held in opposition, as Ms Mahmood unveils her new-look team, including Mike Tapp and Alex Norris.

Sir Keir told reporters on Saturday: ‘The new ministers will drive forward our growth agenda with a relentless focus.

‘Phase two of this Government is about delivery and this is a Government that will renew Britain and deliver the change people voted for.’

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, earlier dismissed suggestions that the Government is facing a crisis.

He insisted that, following Ms Rayner’s departure, Sir Keir now has the “strongest team” around the Cabinet table.

He firmly ruled out an early general election, even as critics warned that the turmoil could expose splits within Labour and threaten the PM’s authority.

On Saturday, Mr Jones told broadcasters that the reshuffle would not delay the PM’s so-called “phase two” of Government, despite senior figures being moved to new roles.

‘It’s not instability insofar as the outcomes that we’re delivering are the same,’ Mr Jones, newly appointed as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, told BBC Breakfast in an exclusive interview.

He rejected suggestions that Ms Cooper struggled to control immigration, insisting she would be “brilliant” as the new Foreign Secretary.

Yet Kim Johnson, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, suggested the reshuffle looked like ‘moving deck chairs on the Titanic’ and ‘creating a London elite’.

‘The Labour Party is a broad church; this is certainly not represented with this reshuffle,’ she said.