Mahmood says she is considering ‘big’ increase in amount paid to refused asylum seekers to get them to leave voluntarily
Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has said that she is considering a “big” increase in the amount the government pays to people refused asylum to encourage them to leave the country voluntarily.
The Home Office already gives people relatively small sums in these circumstances, as it did with Hadush Kebatu, the Epping sex offender recently returned to Ethiopia. He got £500 to help persuade him not to legally challenge his removal.
In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson for his Politcal Thinking podcast, Mahmood said she wanted more voluntary returns and that higher payments might help to deliver this.
According to the BBC, she said looking after someone refused asylum cost about £30,000 per person. Currently the Home Office give people at most around £3,000 to leave.
Mahmood said:
I’ve already asked my officials to pilot a small programme where we offer more than what we currently do for a period just to see how that changes behaviour.
I haven’t alighted on the full sums involved yet, but I am willing to consider a big increase on what we currently pay.
I know it sticks in the craw of many people and they don’t like it, but it is value for money, it does work, and a voluntary return is often the very best way to get people to return to their home country as quickly as possible.
Key events
There are three urgent questions (UQs) in the Commons today, and business questions (questions on next week’s Commons business, not on the work of the business department), before Shabana Mahmood’s statement. Here are the rough timings.
10.30am: A defence minister responds to a UQ on the Russian spy ship Yantar.
After 11am: A Foreign Office minister responds to a UQ on the forcible removal of children to Russia.
After 11.30am: A justice minister responds to a UQ on separation centres, used to house particularly subversive prisoners.
After noon: Alan Campbell, the leader of the Commons, takes questions on next week’s business in the house.
After 1pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, makes her statement on “a fairer pathway to settlement”.
It is unusual for the speaker to grant so many UQs on a Thursday. Perhaps he has decided to make Mahmood wait because he is still furious over the asylum plans being press released to the media over the weekend before they were announced to MPs.
Burnham sets out Greater Manchester’s ‘new model of economic growth’
Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, is giving a speech in Salford this afternoon where he will set out details of his “good growth” plans, but he has already explained much of it overnight in a news release.
Explaining what his “new model of economic growth” is, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (the body Burnham runs) says:
Over the past decade, the city region has become the fastest growing part of the UK economy, driven by a high-performing centre unrecognisable from even 15 years ago.
Our trailblazing devolution deals and unique partnership approach have fuelled annual growth of 3.1 per cent – more than double the rate of the country as a whole. A recent report from Oxford Economics praised Greater Manchester’s growth journey, calling us a “trailblazer for local devolution.”
Analysis shows that, if we can lock in the same kind of growth for the next decade, the Greater Manchester economy will be more than a third bigger than it is today – giving a further £38bn boost to the national finances.
Burnham has established a £1bn “GM good growth fund” and he is announcing today how it will be used to fund “nearly 3,000 homes, more than 22,000 jobs, and 2 million square feet of employment space”.
Explaining how this differs from other development projects, the GMCA says:
A new strategic partnership between GMCA and GMPF [Greater Manchester Pension Fund] – the first of its kind in the country – will prioritise local investment and align the GMPF’s investment to our integrated pipeline. Projects in the integrated pipeline will be able to access patient capital that aims for sustainable growth and long-term impact.
We’ll invest in a way that makes the most of every pound, delivering social as well as economic benefits.
For example, we’ll procure in a way that strengthens local supply chains, and we’ll work with development partners to create new apprenticeships and T-Level placement opportunities for our young people, while ensuring the jobs our pipeline creates meet the standards set out in our good employment charter.
We’ll recycle loans from the GM good growth fund, reinvesting the capital and interest once the monies have been repaid to kickstart other projects.
We’ll also plough back into our integrated pipeline the extra revenue generated by our investments. For example, building new homes and employment sites will generate extra council tax and business rate revenue, which we’ll invest in our communities.
The GMCA news release also highlights other Burnham policies which it says have helped.
Our Greater Manchester baccalaureate is transforming technical education, giving young people a clear line of sight to high quality jobs in our growing economy, and we’re helping residents to live healthier, happier lives and access new employment and training opportunities through our Live Well approach.
Underpinning all this is the Bee Network – our safe, green and affordable public transport system, which is seamlessly connecting people and places like never before. Next year eight rail lines will be brought into the network, which already includes bus, rail, tram, and active travel routes.
Public control over our transport system means we can make sure new housing and employment districts are connected to existing places and communities. And we can keep fares low and offer free or discounted travel to the groups that most need it, so everyone can access jobs, education and leisure opportunities.
Burnham says UK would benefit from new approach to growth and politics he’s promoting in Manchester
In his Today interview Andy Burnham was also asked how he felt about Clive Lewis, the Labour MP for Norwich South, yesterday saying he would be willing to give up his parliamentary seat to allow Burnham to return to the Commons and stand for Labour leader.
Burnham replied:
I appreciate the support, but I couldn’t have brought forward a plan of the kind I brought forward today [his Manchester “good growth” plan] without being fully focused on my role as mayor of Greater Manchester.
And I’m providing leadership on growth, which is what I think the country needs, and is helpful to the government right now.
One of the skills you see in first-class politicians is the ability to deliver nuanced messaging – in effect, making different different points to different audiences at the same time. Wes Streeting gave a good example yesterday (also in an interview on the asylum plans), firmly defending what Mahmood is doing (for the benefit of blue Labour types, and floating voters), while also saying he was liberal enough to feel queasy about aspects of them (not something you hear from Mahmood herself, or Keir Starmer). And here Burnham was ostensibly sounding supportive of the government’s growth plans, while also implying his ideas are better than Rachel Reeves’s.
As Emma Barnett, the presenter, tried to end the interview to move on to the weather, Burnham ploughed on to say he had developed “a new way of doing politics” and that is what Britain needed.
And we’re doing this in advance of the budget, I hope, to really bring to life the growth story for the government.
I would just finish by saying this; I think part of the country’s problem is the political culture of Westminster, which is playing out in front of us right now. You go to Manchester, and we’ve built a new economy, and a new way of doing politics, and more of that is what the country needs.
This suggests Burnham is still very interested in becoming prime minister one day.
Andy Burnham urges government to rethink plans to make asylum seekers wait up to 20 years for permanent settlement
Good morning. On Monday Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced drastic changes to the asylum system. Today, in a statement to MPs, she will announce changes to the legal migration rules – in particular those affecting how long people have to wait until they are given a permanent right to stay in the UK.
Mahmood was strongly criticised by the Commons speaker over the amount of pre-briefing there was ahead of Monday’s announcement, and this morning the Home Office has been more tight-lipped. But the Times reports that Mahmood is expected to announce “that migrants would usually be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain only after ten years — double the five years at present — and must meet certain conditions such as speaking English to A-level standard, having a clean criminal record and not claiming benefits”.
The Monday plans outraged some Labour figures, but the various lists of MPs who had publicly spoken out (like the New Statesman’s) never got much beyond 20 and, from the government’s point of view, internal opposition (so far) remains contained.
But this morning Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor and the most popular (with the public) of the various plausible Labour candidates to replace Keir Starmer as PM, weighed in. In an interview on the Today programme, to promote a speech on Manchester’s “good growth” plans he is giving later, Burnham said he thought it was a mistake to tell asylum seekers they would have to wait 20 years until they can get a permanent right to remain in Britain.
Burnham was at pains not to sound disloyal. He said he backed the overall intention behind the asylum plans.
I agree that Shabana Mahmood is right to grasp this nettle and have root and branch reform of the system. I agree with that.
And he said he was pleased she wanted to change the way asylum seekers are housed.
However, he also said:
But I do have a concern about leaving people without the ability to settle, one of the concerns being that if there’s a need to constantly check up on the status of countries where people have come from, that might limit the ability of the Home Office to deal with the backlog. And it also may leave people in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate.
Burnham was referring to the fact that, under Mahmood’s plans, there would be regular reviews of whether it might be safe for asylum seekers to go home, potentially going on for up to 20 years, until settlement became permanent.
He also urged the government to find a “consensus” on this.
I’m not going to say that the home secretary is wrong to call for this level of change.
What I would say is it’s really important, on the back of the measures that she’s announced, that there is a considered debate, time is taken to see if consensus can be built around it. Because that would be hugely valuable to the country if that could be secured.
Mahmood is unlikely to regard this intervention as helpful.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, are on a school visit in Berkshire to promote applications opening for another round funding for primary schools in England to open free breakfast clubs.
9am: Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, speaks at the CLA Rural Business conference in London.
9.30am: The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly figures on knife crime.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Around 11.30am: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, is expected to make a statement to MPs about legal migration, and changes to rules relating to indefinite leave to remain and citizenship.
3pm: Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, gives a speech.
4pm: The Covid inquiry publishes its report into government decision making during the pandemic. Journalists are getting several hours to read the report before it gets released at 4pm, and so detailed stories about what is in the report will drop at this point.
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