Asylum seekers could be temporarily moved to military sites after Sir Keir Starmer (Labour) told his reshuffled Cabinet to "go up a gear" amid rising Channel crossings. The Prime Minister has made wide-ranging ministerial changes at the Home Office to harden immigration policy, with human rights reform now also being considered.
Defence Secretary John Healey confirmed military planners are being drafted into border command operations. Speaking on Sky's Sunday Morning programme, he said ministers are considering using defence sites for "temporary" accommodation of asylum seekers, though no timeline was confirmed.
"I think you'll start to see Keir Starmer insist that dealing with the small boats, solving the illegal immigration crisis, is part of the jobs of the whole of Government, not just the Home Office," Healey said. He emphasised that Starmer "wants Shabana Mahmood, who's done so well getting to grips with the prisons crisis, to do that in the Home Office."
Cabinet reshuffle intensifies response
The scale of the challenge facing new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was illustrated on Saturday when an estimated 1,000 people arrived by small boat. French authorities separately rescued 24 people attempting to cross the Channel during the same period.
One government source said "nothing is off the table" for Mahmood as she assumes her new brief. She has signalled willingness to examine human rights reforms within domestic law as part of the hardened approach.
Healey said the Prime Minister has put "a new team in place and said to us all, 'you've got to go up a gear to demonstrate that Government can deliver for people'." The reshuffle represents a significant shift in the government's approach to immigration policy.
Political pressure from Reform UK
The policy intensification comes as Starmer faces polling pressure from Nigel Farage's Reform UK party. Reform pledged at their party conference to "stop the boats" within two weeks of entering government before rowing back the claim within 24 hours.
Reform's head of policy Zia Yusuf defended the party's deportation stance on Sunday, referencing Afghanistan policy. "Why were the Tories OK with thousands of military-age men from Afghanistan? That's why mothers were protesting in Epping - because it was British women that were subjected to that very culture," he said.
Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake accused Reform of copying previous Tory migration policies. "All their plans now are a copycat - exactly the plans that we had in the last government," he said, noting Reform had previously considered "towing the boats back to France" before realising the impracticality.
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
