Angela Rayner is ‘now dictating Britain’s migration policy’ after ‘weak’ Shabana Mahmood’s ‘surrender’ to Labour’s Left, claim Tories

DAILYMAIL • 3h ago

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT 12:40 03 Oct 2026, updated 12:40 03 Oct 2026

Angela Rayner is ‘now dictating Britain’s migration policy’ following Shabana Mahmood’s ‘surrender’ to Labour’s Left, the Tories have claimed.

Ms Mahmood, the Home Secretary, used her Labour conference speech this week to hint at a climbdown over her controversial immigration reforms.

It came after Ms Rayner, the Housing Secretary who was brought back into the Cabinet by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham, branded the reforms as ‘un-British’.

Ms Mahmood is now expected to water down proposals to make migrant workers wait longer before they can settle in Britain permanently.

Ahead of an expected announcement later in the autumn, following a Government consultation on the changes, the Home Secretary told Labour members in Liverpool she would ‘come to a position that balances fairness’.

Her comments were taken as a signal she will weaken plans to make migrants wait up to 15 years before claiming Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR), up from five currently.

Chris Philp, the Tories’ shadow home secretary, warned that Ms Mahmood was poised to ‘surrender to the forces on the Left’.

‘What appears to be about to happen is that she’s going to give in, she’s going to surrender to the forces on the Left, led by Angela Rayner,’ he told The Sun.

‘Angela Rayner is now dictating Britain’s migration policy. And I think it’s an act of weakness, of surrender, that Shabana Mahmood’s apparently given in.’

Ahead of the Tories’ own conference in Birmingham, Mr Philp told the newspaper he wanted ‘net negative migration’ so more people leave Britain than arrive each year.

He said he would deport low-wage migrants who earned less than £30,000 once their temporary work visa expired.

Mr Burnham has rejected suggestions that Ms Mahmood’s planned visa changes may not happen because Ms Rayner views them as ‘un-British’.

But the PM has said the reforms would need to ‘strike the right balance’.

Asked whether he was ‘Team Shabana’ or ‘Team Angela,’ he told LBC this week: ‘I’m both of them, I’m Team Angela and Shabana.

‘But it just reflects that there’s a consultation, there’s different not just opinions from politicians, but obviously there’s a range of views that have gone into that consultation, so we’re in the process now of looking at that.’

A Labour source said: ‘The Tories surrendered control of our borders.

‘This Labour Government is restoring control with net migration down over 80 per cent and small boats down over 40 per cent.’

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