Shabana Mahmood becomes UK’s first Muslim woman Home Secretary

Shabana Mahmood has been appointed the United Kingdom’s new Home Secretary, following a cabinet reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner’s resignation.

She replaces Yvette Cooper and now steps into one of the most high-profile and demanding roles in government at a time of mounting pressure over asylum, immigration, and border security.

Mahmood, a barrister by training and MP for Birmingham Ladywood, has served for the past year as lord chancellor and justice secretary. During that time, she confronted the prison overcrowding crisis and introduced a sweeping reform bill aimed at restructuring the penal system. She also sought to tackle the massive backlog in the courts.

Her new role, however, shifts her focus more directly to migration policy, an issue that has dominated headlines due to record numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel and the controversial reliance on hotels to house asylum seekers.

The daughter of Kashmiri immigrants, Mahmood has not shied away from engaging in debates on immigration. Earlier this year, she backed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s warning that without firm rules, Britain risked becoming an “island of strangers.”

While careful not to echo the phrase herself, she stressed, “I agree with the Prime Minister that without curbs on migration, without making sure that we have strong rules that everyone follows, and that we have a pace of immigration that allows for integration into our country, we do risk becoming a nation of people estranged from one another.

"And what he has described is something that I absolutely believe in, and which are the values of the Labour Party, which is a desire to see this country as a nation of neighbours,” she continued.

Mahmood is now the most senior Muslim woman in government, a fact highlighted by supporters as a sign of changing representation at the top of British politics.

Her approach to Europe’s human rights framework has also attracted attention. Earlier this summer, she argued that reform of the European Convention on Human Rights was necessary to restore public confidence, suggesting that the UK has at times interpreted its obligations too rigidly. She has also supported tightening the application of Article 8, the right to family and private life, in immigration cases.

As justice secretary, Mahmood proposed new powers to deport foreign nationals immediately upon receiving custodial sentences, saying last month, “If you abuse our hospitality and break our laws, we will send you packing. Deportations are up under this government, and with this new law they will happen earlier than ever before.”

Her appointment has been welcomed by figures within Labour’s socially conservative wing. Lord Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement, described the move as “fantastic,” while noting that she is now “clearly the leader of our part of the party.” Mahmood herself has previously said her constituents, a diverse community that is 70 percent non-white, want a migration system that is firm but fair.

Outside of politics, migration and asylum groups are urging her to move quickly. Enver Solomon, head of the Refugee Council, praised progress made under her predecessor but stressed that Mahmood faces a daunting in-tray. “It is vital she quickly gets to grips with a long to-do list that includes rapidly ending the use of asylum hotels, speeding up decision making for asylum applications and expanding safe and legal pathways for refugees fleeing conflict to reach the UK safely.”

Mahmood’s tenure as Home Secretary begins at a moment of intense scrutiny, with both her allies and critics watching closely to see how she balances security, justice, and compassion in one of the most politically charged briefs in Westminster.