Home Secretary to announce largest shake up of UK immigration in modern times
SKY NEWS UK
Sunday 16 November 2025 23:22, UK
Shabana Mahmood will address the House of Commons on Monday to lay out “the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times”, effectively since the Second World War.
The home secretary is set to announce the largest overhaul in the UK’s immigration system in modern times, as she said “we must restore order and control” over who enters and remains in the country.
Shabana Mahmood will address the House of Commons on Monday to lay out “the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times”, effectively since the Second World War.
Modelled on the Danish system, the aim of the reforms is to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants and make it easier to deport them.
Under the plans, she will bring forward a bill to change how article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the right to family life, is applied in migration court cases.
Shabana Mahmood is the new hard woman of British politics
Here’s how the Danish migration model works
That’s as the Home Office claimed it had seen a rise in the use of rights-based appeals in recent years as a means of avoiding deportation.
The changes would see only those with immediate family in the UK, such as a parent or child, being able to use article 8 as grounds to stay in future.
A group of people thought to be migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, from a Border Force vessel following a small boat incident
Home secretary vows to end UK’s ‘golden ticket’ for asylum seekers – as Denmark-based reforms to be unveiled
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood delivers a speech during the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool. Picture date: Monday September 29,
Refugee status set to become temporary in radical asylum reforms
The home secretary, who has been in the job for 73 days, also plans to change the law so that multiple attempts to appeal against refusals for asylum will no longer be allowed.
Furthermore, refugees will face a 20-year wait before they can apply for permanent settlement as part of the government’s plans.
The Home Office said the “golden ticket” deal has seen asylum claims surge in the UK, drawing people across Europe, through safe countries, on to dangerous small boats.
Shabana Mahmood is the new hard woman of British politics – and potential successor to Starmer
We’re told that Shabana Mahmood, the still new home secretary, is “a woman in a hurry”.
She’s been in the job for 73 days – and is now announcing “the most sweeping reforms to tackle illegal migration in modern times” – effectively since the Second World War.
Her language is not just tough – it’s radical. Not what you’d have expected to hear from a Labour home secretary even just a few months ago.
“Illegal migration”, she believes, “is tearing our country apart. The crisis at our borders is out of control”.
Her team argues that those never-ending images of people crossing the Channel in small boats have led to a complete loss of faith in the government’s ability to take any action at all – let alone deliver on its promises.
The political reality is that successive failures of Tory and Labour ministers have fuelled the inexorable rise of Reform.
Under the proposals, refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review, with refugees removed once their home countries are deemed safe.
Housing and weekly allowances will no longer be guaranteed for asylum seekers.
Govt ‘lacks empathy and understanding’ for refugees
But the shake-up will also see the introduction of safe and legal routes to the UK in a bid to cut dangerous journeys in small boats across the Channel.
A new independent body – similar to one in operation in Denmark – will be set up to fast-track the removal of dangerous criminals, and last-minute appeals will be expedited.
Ms Mahmood has denied that her plans to clamp down on illegal immigration are “racist” – instead describing them as a “moral mission”.
She said illegal immigration was causing “huge divides” in the UK, and added: “I do believe we need to act if we are to retain public consent for having an asylum system at all.”
Speaking on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Ms Mahmood said she had observed how illegal migration had been “creating division across our country”.
She added: “I can see that it is polarising communities across the country. I can see that it is dividing people and making them estranged from one another. I don’t want to stand back and watch that happen in my country.”
What measures is the home secretary set to announce?
Refugee status will become temporary and subject to regular review – with people facing removal as soon as their home countries are deemed safe
Asylum seekers will face a 20-year wait before they can apply for permanent settlement
New safe and legal routes to be introduced for those genuinely fleeing war and persecution
Changes to the legal framework that will require judges to prioritise public safety over migrants’ rights to a family life – amid fears that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights has been used to frustrate removals
Using facial age estimation technology, a form of AI ,to rapidly assess a person’s age in a bid to deter people who pretend to be children in an attempt to claim asylum
Capped work and study routes for refugees will also be created
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Britain has always been a fair, tolerant and compassionate country – and this government will always defend those values.
“But in a more volatile world, people need to know our borders are secure and rules are enforced. These reforms will block endless appeals, stop last-minute claims and scale up removals of those with no right to be here.”
Fast-track deportations to be announced as part of asylum reforms BBC NEWS By Jennifer McKiernan – Political reporter 16 November 2025.
The government has said it wants to reduce the number of migrants coming to the UK on small boats
Plans to fast-track the deportations of illegal migrants as part of a sweeping reforms of the UK’s asylum policy are to be announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.
In a statement to MPs on Monday she will outline plans to end multiple appeals against removal and for an overhaul of legislation on human rights law.
For those granted asylum they will only be given it on a temporary basis and will be returned home if their country is at any time deemed safe. They will have to wait 20 years to apply to settle permanently.
Mahmood is also to say the UK will stop granting visas to people from three African countries if their governments do not improve co-operation on removals of illegal migrants.
Mahmood told the BBC on Sunday: “This is a moral mission for me, because I can see illegal migration is tearing our country apart, it is dividing communities.”
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said he would go further and deport failed asylum seekers “within a week”.
The plans have prompted criticism from some Labour MPs, including Rachael Maskell, who said the government was going in “completely the wrong direction” on immigration.
The government wants to reduce the number of people arriving to the UK on small boats and the reforms aim to speed up deportations of failed asylum seekers and foreign criminals as well as make it more difficult for successful asylum seekers to remain.
Under the plans people will be restricted to arguing their grounds for appeal within a single appeal and if a case fails, they will be deported.
The government will follow the Danish model of creating an independent body to fast-track the deportation of foreign criminals and cases with little prospect of success through the appeals system.
As part of the reforms, Mahmood wants to overhaul how human rights legislation, including Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) which covers the right to family life, is applied in migration court cases.
Only those with immediate family in the UK, such as a parent or child, will be able to use Article 8 as grounds to stay.
The UK will join other countries in reforming Article 3 of the ECHR, which is designed to give people protection against inhuman or degrading treatment.
The government believes this has been used to support unreasonable claims, including serious criminals having their deportation blocked because their healthcare needs cannot be met.
Similarly, the Home Office said the Modern Slavery Act will be tightened up to prevent last-minute claims to block removal.
00:29 Media caption, Illegal migration is ‘dividing our country’ says Mahmood
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the reforms would stop “endless appeals” to increase the removals of “those with no right to be here”.
Mahmood said the reforms recognised the “pace and scale” of immigration had destabilised and divided communities and would allow the government to ramp up the removal of those with no right to be in Britain.
She continued: “To maintain the generosity that allows us to provide sanctuary, we must restore order and control.”
Earlier the home secretary told the BBC she would create new safe and legal routes for refugees through work and study routes.
Under the new measures there will be tighter restrictions placed on successful asylum seekers, who will have their case reviewed every two and a half years and if their home country is considered safe they will be returned.
A refugee will have to have been resident in the UK for 20 years, up from the current five years, in order to apply for permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain.
They will not be able to bring family members to join them unless they are immediate relatives, including parents and children, while housing and weekly allowances will also no longer be guaranteed for asylum seekers.
‘Years of limbo’ Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with around 111,000 applications in the year to June 2025, according to official figures.
The appeals system currently has a backlog of more than 50,000 and a waiting time of at least a year.
There has also been criticism of the proposed reforms from within Labour, with Maskell saying lots of her fellow MPs were “really concerned”.
She said it was important to have a robust human rights framework and described “reordering our relationship with the ECHR” as a “step too far”.
Reform leader Nigel Farage said the home secretary “sounds like a Reform supporter”.
“It’s a shame that the Human Rights Act, ECHR and her own backbenchers mean that this will never happen,” he added.
Liberal Democrats home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson said the government should “focus on processing claims quickly, getting them right first time, and swiftly deporting people with no right to be here”.
Enver Solomon, chief executive at the Refugee Council, said rather than deter migrants, the 20-year time frame would “leave people in limbo and in tense anxiety for many, many years”.
As first reported in the Times, external, the threat of the visa ban for Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo comes after thousands of illegal migrants and criminals from the three nations were said to be in the UK.
A Home Office source said the countries were being targeted “for their unacceptably low cooperation and obstructive returns processes”.
High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom Nimal Senadheera Presents Credentials to His Majesty King Charles III
On 28 October 2025, the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the United Kingdom Nimal Senadheera, presented his Letter of Credence to His Majesty King Charles III at a ceremonial event held at Buckingham Palace. High Commissioner Senadheera, accompanied by his spouse and diplomatic officers, was escorted by Ms. Eleanor Mackewn, Assistant Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, to the Palace in the traditional horse-drawn carriages of the Royal Mews, in keeping with the distinguished protocol accorded to new Heads of Mission.
During his audience with His Majesty the King, High Commissioner Senadheera conveyed the warmest felicitations of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, alongside best wishes for his good health and well-being. The discussion focused on deepening and intensifying the longstanding political, economic and cultural relations between Sri Lanka and the UK, and also with the Commonwealth.
In the evening, a Vin D’honneur was hosted at Sri Lanka House for Members of the Houses of Parliament, representatives of the UK Government, members of the diplomatic corps and the British Sri Lankan community to celebrate the occasion. In his address, High Commissioner Senadheera expressed gratitude for the support extended by the UK government since his assumption of duties and emphasised the aspiration to further strengthen bilateral relations.
High Commissioner Nimal Senadheera is a senior officer in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service (SLAS) with an extensive career spanning several decades with wide experience in public policy and administration, diplomacy, and education.
High Commission of Sri Lanka – United Kingdom
Couple filming nude content for UK website arrested
in Rajagiriya
Colombo, Nov 9. (Daily Mirror)
A married couple who had uploaded nude videos of themselves to a subscription-based adult website in UK have been arrested by officers of the Nugegoda Divisional Children and Women’s Bureau.
Police investigations have revealed that the husband is a computer engineering graduate from a private university, while the wife holds a diploma in psychology, also from a private institution.
The arrest was made on Friday (08) at a house in Rajagiriya, following information.
According to police, the couple had been residing on the top floor of a three-storey building. Other family members occupied the lower floors.
During the raid, officers found that the videos had been recorded on the third floor, with the furniture and interior settings matching the backgrounds seen in the footage. A mobile phone used to record the videos and a laptop used for editing and uploading were seized from the premises.
Investigations have uncovered that the couple had uploaded 334 videos to the site. They had reportedly entered into an agreement with the foreign company in November last year, under which they were to provide eight videos per month. The couple had told police they earned between Rs. 150,000 to Rs. 200,000 monthly, with higher payments depending on the number of views.
They further informed that they resorted to producing the videos after both lost their jobs and faced financial difficulties. The website had not been accessible within Sri Lanka until August this year, and the couple believed their identities would remain undiscovered.
Police investigation revealed that the couple does not have children. They are to be produced before the Colombo Aluthgama Magistrate’s Court today.
Thousands of NHS staff in England to lose jobs after deal approved BBC NEWS By Nick Triggle Health correspondent 12 November 2025,
Thousands of NHS staff redundancies in England will now go ahead after a deal was reached with the Treasury to allow the health service to overspend this year to cover the cost of pay-offs. The government said earlier this year 18,000 admin and managerial jobs would go with NHS England, the body that runs the NHS, being brought into the Department of Health and Social Care alongside cuts to local health boards.
NHS bosses and health ministers had been in talks with the Treasury over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill with the health service wanting extra money.
The Treasury blocked that, but the BBC understands a compromise has been reached with the NHS permitted to overspend this year.
‘Pragmatic step’ As the job cuts result in savings in future years, the NHS will be expected to recoup the costs further down the line.
Overall, government sources said no extra money is going into the NHS beyond what was agreed at the spending review this year – an extra £29bn a year above inflation by 2028-29. Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Breakfast that patients and NHS staff had told him the health service had “too many layers of management, too many layers of bureaucracy”.
“People want to see the front line prioritised, and that is exactly what we’re doing,” he said, adding he would tell NHS leaders “we’re finally on the road to recovery” in his speech later on Wednesday.
In a speech to health managers at the NHS Providers’ conference in Manchester later, Streeting is expected to say: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.
“We’re now pushing down on the accelerator and slashing unnecessary bureaucracy, to reinvest the savings in front-line care.
“It won’t happen overnight, but with our investment and modernisation, we will rebuild our NHS so it is there for you when you need it once again.”
According to the government, the reforms will raise £1bn a year by the end of the parliament to improve services for patients. It said every £1bn saved in bureaucracy costs is enough to fund an extra 116,000 hip and knee operations.
Abolishing NHS England is radical – why do it?
NHS England is expected to be brought back into the Department of Health within two years, while the cuts to integrated care boards (ICBs), which plan health services for individual regions, will reduce their headcounts by 50%. NHS Providers’ chief executive Daniel Elkeles said: “This is a pragmatic step that means planned redundancies can now go ahead.
“It reflects the flexibility of a three-year settlement, allowing some funding to be brought forward in order to generate future savings to go into front-line care.
“However, we must recognise the position of staff affected by these changes – people who have offered commitment and service to the NHS – who face a very uncertain future.” But Patricia Marquis of the Royal College of Nursing warned the redundancies could backfire.
“Front-line services need more investment, but to do this off the backs of making thousands of experts redundant is a false economy.
“Expert registered nurses working across NHS England and ICBs don’t just run vital public health programmes and oversee care programmes for the vulnerable – they connect the NHS and social care services with one another. “To imply these are administrators shows a complete lack of understanding of their roles and how they contribute to patient care.”
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