Shabana Mahmood ripped into the Greens for “hypocrisy” in a fierce Commons clash over her migration plans. The Home Secretary was accused of trying to “out-Reform Reform” by Green MP Carla Denyer as she set out proposals to overhaul the asylum system on Tuesday.
Ms Denyer, who represents Bristol Central, said: “It isn’t people seeking sanctuary that are tearing our country apart. It’s toxic, racist narratives, and the scapegoating of migrants and asylum seekers for what is nothing to do with them. The chronic housing crisis, the running down of public services are not caused by migrants, they are caused by political decisions and by the grotesque inequality in this country.
“Does the Secretary of State understand that attempting to out-Reform Reform is actually just boosting this baseless far-Right narrative and will only deepen divisions when we urgently need leadership and hope instead?”
But Ms Mahmood replied: “I couldn’t care less what any other political party has to say about these matters.
“I care about the fact that I have an important job to do, and I can see there is a problem here that needs to be fixed.
“If it was possible to pretend there wasn’t a problem because there wasn’t one, I wouldn’t be saying there is one.
Green MP Carla Denyer and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (Image: Parliament TV)
“There is a genuine problem in this asylum system and it needs someone to sort it out, not to pretend it doesn’t exist which I’m afraid is one of the things that fuels the division in the first place.”
She added: “It is Green Party politicians who are absolute hypocrites because they talk great language in here then oppose asylum accommodation in their own constituencies.”
Her comments prompted a furious reaction from Ms Denyer who could be seen shouting back.
It came as the Home Secretary set out a package aimed at deterring migrants from seeking asylum in the UK and making it easier to remove people with no right to be in the country.
Ms Mahmood told MPs it was the “uncomfortable truth” that the UK’s generous asylum offer, compared to other European countries, is drawing people to UK shores, and for British taxpayers the system “feels out of control and unfair”.
