Andy Burnham will back Shabana Mahmood’s immigration crackdown despite rising resistance from Labour MPs.
The Makerfield MP, tipped to become prime minister next week, will back the Home Secretary’s immigration and asylum bill when it goes to the Commons on Monday for its second reading.
The legislation would make it difficult for foreign criminals and failed asylum seekers to use human rights rules to hinder their removal, streamline the appeals procedure, force migrants to pay back the cost of their lodging and permit fast-track deportations.
It would also create the opportunity to increase safe legal routes in an attempt to reduce the number of unlawful Channel crossings.
A spokesperson for Mr Burnham said the measure was intended to ensure the asylum system was fair for genuine refugees and communities by curbing uncontrolled illicit small boat crossings and moving towards capped, safe and legal routes for genuine refugees.
“Andy believes the public deserve a compassionate and credible asylum system. “This Bill makes important advances towards restoring confidence by dealing with illegal crossings while enhancing safe and legal pathways for bona fide refugees,” he said.
“This is about ensuring the system is fair for those seeking protection and for the communities who take them in.”
Labour MPs Push Back Against Immigration Restrictions
Around 80 Labour MPs have written to their would-be leader requesting he scale down Ms Mahmood’s restrictions on lawful migration.
They are asking on Mr Burnham to overturn plans to extend the time most migrants, including those currently residing in the UK, have to wait to apply for indefinite leave to remain.
Critics of the plans, including former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, claim it is “unfair” and “un-British” to change the timescale for migrants in the UK retrospectively from five to 10 years.
The 80 MPs, in their letter to Mr Burnham, said voters in the Makerfield by-election had spoken about “irregular migration” but not “making it harder for care workers and nurses to settle here” in a sharp reference to Ms Mahmood’s settlement measures.
The letter also raised severe concerns about alleged hostile rhetoric from the Home Office on migration, and appealed for more compassion from Mr Burnham’s government.
It is believed that the letter was orchestrated by Tony Vaughan, the MP for Folkestone, who has long criticised the immigration policies.
Mahmood Explores Possible Concessions
Ms Mahmood has been exploring concessions or “transitional arrangements” to prevent the backbench mutiny after a public survey.
Burnham’s earlier reservations regarding retrospective alterations
Among the concessions being examined are to exempt public sector workers, reduce the 10-year time frame and exclude individuals who are on the cusp of qualifying for settled status this year.
Labour MP for Dover and Home Office minister Mike Tapp sparked a debate in the Home Office after publishing an essay arguing that foreign care workers should be excluded from proposals to extend the time migrants have to wait for visas.
Ms Mahmood called for him to be removed for “taking proposals the Home Secretary was working on and briefing them as his own”.
Mr Burnham is understood to have concerns about the retrospective nature of the proposals but he has yet to state publicly the shape of the revisions he wants.
He is almost certain to become Britain’s next prime minister Monday after all his leadership competitors dropped their own ambitions to support his campaign.
Commons Lack of Examination
But while the prime minister-in-waiting has made huge interventions on Gaza and now migration in the past week, he is unlikely to face any scrutiny in Parliament before September.
MPs are scheduled to take their summer break on Thursday and will not return until Sept 1, meaning Mr Burnham will have six weeks without having to answer to MPs.
“I have asked Sir Alan Campbell, the Labour leader of the Commons, to extend the current Commons session until Monday so we can scrutinise Mr Burnham on his first day as prime minister,” the shadow leader of the Commons, Jesse Norman, said on Monday.
“There was no battle for his leadership, there were no hustings and there was no public debate about his ideas for government. He inherits a manifesto to which he has added nothing.
He has made only one public statement, and he did not take questions from the media.
Then there will be a six-week summer recess, during which the new prime minister and an as yet unknown Cabinet will be running the country, but without the clarity and power imparted by any democratic accountability to parliament.
Sir Alan, the Tory frontbencher, said he wanted to “at the very least” make sure the Commons sits on July 20 when Mr Burnham officially takes over from Sir Keir Starmer.
Burnham’s Vision for Government
The Makerfield MP will address the country outside No 10 and is likely to start naming Cabinet nominees.
In his first major address since his by-election triumph, Mr Burnham laid out his vision for a new “No 10 of the North” centred in Manchester and pledged big improvements to the economy and education system.
But his speech was short on policy specifics and his staff refused to answer media questions following the event.
Since then, he has been taking part in question-and-answer sessions with Instagram and Reddit users, where he and his staff get the last word on which questions to respond. He has also posted video of himself running, ranked his top Manchester bands and talked about the World Cup.