Tuesday briefing: Inside Shabana Mahmood’s new UK asylum reforms

Good morning. Last night home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, set out further planned reforms to the asylum system. A new means-tested scheme, which will see asylum seekers ordered to pay about £10,000 each for their state-funded living costs or be denied settled status in the UK, has been condemned by refugee charities for placing a tax on refugees fleeing war, torture and famine. Over the weekend, briefings suggested Mahmood also plans to speed up the opening of safe and legal routes to claim asylum, like employer sponsorship, as she bids to quell backbench critics, including former deputy leader Angela Rayner – a belated acknowledgment that the absence of such routes has forced many to make the perilous Channel crossing in those small boats that have become a totem for public and political anxieties around immigration. Both proposals are part of the immigration and asylum bill, which will go before MPs today as the home secretary faces both ways on what she’s described as a “moral mission”. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Sunder Katwala , director of the British Future thinktank, about the challenges facing Mahmood, and whether Andy Burnham can tell a better story about immigration than Keir Starmer. (Fun fact: Katwala is, like Burnham, a lifelong Everton supporter.) First, the headlines. …