"I actually want to go much bigger on safe and legal routes."
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has said she wants more refugees to enter Britain through safe and legal routes once Labour has “fixed” the broken asylum system.
She argued that tightening rules on illegal migration would allow the Government to increase controlled, legal entry routes.
Her comments came during an interview on Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast. They are likely to be seen as a response to growing criticism within Labour.
Angela Rayner is among those who have described the proposals as “un-British”.
The Government plans to introduce a new pathway this autumn, allowing refugee and displaced students to apply for places at British universities from 2027.
Mahmood said her broader strategy is designed to restore trust in the immigration system.
She said: “One of the reasons why I am so determined to fix the system that I’ve inherited is I actually want to go much bigger on safe and legal routes.”
The Home Secretary has outlined three capped routes. These include schemes for students, skilled refugees entering the workforce, and a sponsorship model based on the Homes for Ukraine programme.
Under the proposals, voluntary and community organisations would help bring refugees to the UK.
Mahmood continued: “I think once we’ve got control of our system, once we’ve shown our country that we can run a good migration system, we can break the business model of the gangs, we can stop people paying thousands of pounds to people smugglers or risking their lives on the Channel to move to a system of safe and legal routes.”
Each route would be limited annually. Only individuals granted refugee status would be eligible to enter.
Shabana Mahmood said this approach would improve efficiency and fairness:
“I think that you can be much more generous. And in those systems, you accept people as refugees before they arrive, so the whole system works much better.
“The diversity of our country, I think it’s like part of our superpower.
“We are quite unique in the world for the range of different types of people we have in our country, the tolerance we have for different belief systems, different cultures, different races, like we have, we have a huge amount of diversity, and we hold ourselves together reasonably well compared to other countries, but that is in danger of being lost.”
Mahmood added that perceived rule-breaking was fuelling frustration among the public:
“Nothing irritates and annoys our fellow citizens more than feeling that you can break the rules and get away with it.
“Your ordinary person who plays by the rules, does the right thing and feels totally mugged when that happens.
“And that doesn’t matter whether you’re white or black or Asian, that is an across the board universal thing.”
Alongside expanding legal routes, the Government plans to tighten settlement rules.
The time required for most migrant workers to qualify for indefinite leave to remain would double from five to 10 years.
For refugees, that period could extend to 20 years.
Automatic rights to permanent settlement and family reunification would also be removed. Refugees would need to demonstrate financial independence to bring relatives to the UK.
The proposals have triggered significant opposition within Labour.
More than 100 MPs have signed a letter urging ministers to reconsider changes to indefinite leave to remain. Concerns focus on plans to apply the rules retrospectively.
Downing Street has indicated it may soften the policy. Transitional measures are being considered for migrants already in the UK.
Shabana Mahmood is reviewing feedback from a public consultation. She has positioned her approach as a middle ground between what she described as the Green Party’s “open borders” stance and the “racist” policies of Reform UK.
Current legal routes for refugees remain limited. Fewer than 1,000 people arrived through such pathways in the year to September 2025, excluding schemes for Ukraine and Hong Kong.
A Labour source said: “Increases in safe and legal can only happen if we effectively bear down on unsafe and illegal.
“The goal is to shift away from a world where entry to this country is unsafe and illegal and towards one where we offer asylum to those who arrive through safe and legal routes, in a controlled manner.”
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