Britain's home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, fired back sharply at "white liberals" during a public event in central London, after being accused of cribbing the policies of Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
During the Monday interview, an audience member said he wanted to "personally thank" the minister for "beating Reform at their own game." Two others in the room shouted "refugees are welcome" as security escorted the man from the premises.
Answering the comedian Matt Forde, Mahmood said she would not be confined to "the cage assigned to her," and accused the protesters of trying to "delegitimize" the "entirely reasonable" concerns many people hold about high levels of immigration.
The clash came amid mounting pressure on Mahmood from Labour backbenchers and Cabinet colleagues alike, pressing her to soften a tough agenda on asylum and migration.
On Forde's Political Party podcast at London's Duchess Theatre, Mahmood said the charge of chasing Reform voters was "just a way of delegitimizing the point of view I bring to the table." "It's also a way of delegitimizing the entirely reasonable, legitimate views of millions of people in this country, including ethnic minorities. That is not acceptable. You're trying to box me into a cage where a fair number of people also think I don't even belong to my own country."
"That's exactly why I said that man could just f—k off. Because I know I belong to my country. That won't work on me," the minister added.
In the criticism directed at her, Mahmood also detected a racial undertone. "I do think there's that element to it: 'How dare you, a woman of color, say things that we, white liberals, have decided you aren't supposed to say?' Well—I'm saying them."
Speaking with Forde, the minister admitted she was frustrated by Labour's pace in government: "We, inside the Labour Party, are becoming our own worst obstacle."
Mahmood intends to abolish indefinite protection for refugees: their status would be reviewed every 30 months, and once safe conditions emerge in their country of origin, they would be returned home. Refugees would be permitted to bring their families to Britain only after achieving financial self-sufficiency, and would only become eligible to apply for permanent residence after 20 years in the country.
Beyond that, Mahmood has doubled the qualifying period most foreign workers must serve before obtaining permanent status in Britain—from five years to ten.
The minister has lately come under fire for her claim that overhauling the rules on permanent residency will save the Treasury £10 billion. The IPPR think tank has pointed out that, according to estimates from the government's own Migration Advisory Committee, migrants' dependants make a net positive contribution to the budget—right up until they leave the workforce, begin drawing the state pension and start facing mounting healthcare costs.