LONDON: British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has issued a stark warning regarding the state of ethnic relations in the United Kingdom, asserting that anti-Muslim hatred has reached a scale she has “never known in my lifetime.” Her comments were delivered at a fringe event during the Labour Party’s annual conference, hosted by Lord Michael Gove.
Recounting her own history with abuse, Mahmood said: “When I was a child, I think I was seven or eight years old, that’s the first time I heard the word ‘Paki’ [a racial slur]… so it’s not as if I haven’t been racially abused before.”
However, she noted a dangerous escalation in the current climate: “But what is happening now is something much deeper and much more pervasive, and it does feel like it’s everywhere at the moment. Members of my own family, just in the last couple of weeks, you know, a handful of them have been called ‘f**** Paki’ in Birmingham, in places that I go to regularly with my family.”
The Shadow of Far-Right Mobilisation
The Home Secretary linked the rising hate to recent street mobilisation by far-right elements. She pointed to the “Unite the Kingdom” rally in London on September 13, organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, which drew between 110,000 and 150,000 people according to the Metropolitan Police.
Mahmood stated that the marchers included “heirs to the skinheads and the Paki-bashers of old.” She detailed the disorder: “While not everyone was violent, some were, 26 police officers were injured as they tried to keep the peace. And while not everyone chanted racist slogans, some did.”
“Clear that in their view of this country, I have no place,” Mahmood declared, warning that dismissing the event as the work of a “nothing but an angry minority” would be to ignore a broader reality: “The story of who we are is contested.” She stressed that if the Labour Party fails to address legitimate immigration concerns, “division within this country will grow.”
New Conditions for Permanent Residency
In a major policy announcement made at the conference, the Home Secretary outlined a series of strict conditions for migrants seeking Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) status. Under the proposed changes, migrants who wish to settle permanently in the UK will have to:
- Learn English to a high standard.
- Have a clean criminal record.
- Volunteer in their community.
- Be working, paying National Insurance, and not claiming benefits.
Defending the decision to place conditionality on ILR, Mahmood argued it is “right” because it establishes a “two-way street.”
“I think it’s right that, as a country, we decide that before you are allowed to remain here for good, there are some things that you have to do,” she said, concluding, “And it’s a two-way street, there’s a reciprocal relationship that’s being created here.”
Mahmood warned that inaction on migration concerns would cause working-class communities to “seek solace in the false promises of [Reform UK leader Nigel] Farage,” turning towards “something smaller, something narrower, something less welcoming.” The challenge, she concluded, is “not just to win the next election but to keep the country together and to fight for our belief in a greater Britain, not a littler England.”
