Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, whose parents migrated to the UK from Pakistan, is facing the suggestion from a veteran Labour peer that she is “pulling up the drawbridge once inside” when considering the plight of refugee children trapped abroad.
Alf Dubs, who came to the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, said the home secretary and other ministers had “kowtowed” to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK by preventing unaccompanied children from seeking refuge with UK-based family members.
Keir Starmer’s government is facing pressure from Labour MPs after announcing plans for the biggest shake-up of asylum laws in 40 years, including the suspension of family reunion visas.
Ministers have rejected attempts by Dubs and refugee charities to make it easier for children seeking asylum from abroad to apply to join family in the UK.
Mahmood has said that more safe and legal routes will be opened for refugees once order and control has been rest
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