Mahmood to host Five Eyes border talks in first major job as Home Secretary

Shabana Mahmood will host the so-called Five Eyes security alliance for talks on how to stop people smuggling in her first major engagement as Home Secretary.

Counterparts from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand will meet this week in London as Sir Keir Starmer seeks to use his reshuffle to tighten the Government’s grip on immigration.

It comes after an estimated 1,000 people arrived by small boat in Britain over a single day, with French authorities saying 24 people were rescued while trying to cross the English Channel.

Ms Mahmood said the numbers, which take the yearly total to more than 30,000 in record time, were “utterly unacceptable” and that she expected migrant returns under a deal agreed last month with France to begin “imminently.”

She said the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing pact would “agree new measures to protect our border” after it emerged ministers are also looking at moving asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks.

She will be joined at the talks by US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Canadian public safety minister Gary Anandasangaree, Australian home affairs minister Tony Burke and New Zealand minister Judith Collins.

The group will also discuss new measures to tackle child sexual abuse online and as well as the spread of deadly synthetic opioids, the Home Office said.

Ms Mahmood said: “Rebuilding our reputation on the world stage is how we tackle serious organised crime and secure our borders.

“We have already reset our relationship with the EU, struck a people smuggling deal with the G7 and operationalised a first-of its-kind returns agreement with France.

“We will agree new measures to protect our borders with our Five Eyes partners, hitting people smugglers hard.

“The Five Eyes might be drawn from different corners of the globe, but we are united by our alliance. As the security threats we all face become more complex and span continents, we are stronger and safer together.”

Ms Mahmood took over as Home Secretary from Yvette Cooper, who became Foreign Secretary, in a major Cabinet reshuffle on Friday following the resignation of Angela Rayner over her tax affairs.

Sir Keir will be hoping to draw a line under the fallout from his former deputy’s departure as well as a difficult summer dominated by criticism of the small boats crisis.

The Prime Minister has told his new ministers to “go up a gear” in delivering on Labour’s agenda, part of which now involves a toughened immigration policy as he faces pressure in the polls from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

In her first full day on the job, Ms Mahmood met the head of Scotland Yard on Saturday to receive a briefing on the policing operation in response to protests in London.

“Supporting Palestine and supporting a proscribed terrorist group are not the same thing,” she said.

“An honour to visit Sir Mark (Rowley) and the Metropolitan Police to see them at work policing protests yesterday.”

Almost 900 people were arrested at a central London rally protesting against the banning of Palestine Action as a terror group, the force said earlier.