Shabana Mahmood scolded for 'completely perverse' plan to pay illegal migrants to leave Britain: 'Appalling!'

The Home Secretary has today unveiled her strict new rules, banning foreign criminals from entering the UK and a new pilot trial for a Danish-style asylum seeker policy, which will pay illegal migrants £10,000 each to leave Britain.

Speaking at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London, Ms Mahmood said it is "essential that the privilege of living in this country forever is earned, not automatic".

Quizzed by GB News on her latest policies, Ms Mahmood told the People's Channel she is "cracking on" with securing Britain's borders.

She said: "I've been in the job for just over six months, it does feel a bit longer than that, but we made these announcements in November. We're cracking on with implementation. We're only just into March, we'll keep going.

"We will have primary legislation as well as secondary legislation and rule changes in the normal way for immigration rules that happen automatically twice a year, so we're cracking on with making the changes.

"I'd say to your viewers and others who are watching, judge us by our record and what we actually deliver."

Asked by host Miriam Cates whether he believes the cost of the policy is an "unprecedented amount", Mr Pursglove agreed, arguing: "This is completely unprecedented and totally appalling in my view.

"The idea that the British taxpayer should stand by payments of £40,000 to be given to people who've broken our laws, came to our country illegally, presumably been accommodated in taxpayer funded hotels and then sent on their way with £40,000 in their pocket is completely perverse, and I think downright offensive actually."

Casting even more doubt on the policy, the ex-immigration minister predicted that the payout will only "encourage more people to come".

He argued: "So not only is this grossly unfair on the taxpayer, and I would argue completely unnecessary, if ministers were willing to take the steps that were necessary to have a deterrent and to change the laws to remove these people, we wouldn't need to pay them, we wouldn't need to accommodate them - that's what they should be doing."

Taking issue with praise of Ms Mahmood and her performance as Home Secretary so far, Mr Pursglove told GB News that he has seen "no credible delivery" to make him conclude that she is "shifting the dial".

Sympathising with Britons about the cost of the new policy, he said: "It will be offensive to people who work hard every day that go out, put a shift in that don't earn that sort of money.

"And equally, pensioners who also have contributed for years and years and years over the course of their lives will be watching this with complete bemusement."

Calling on the Labour Government to implement a deterrent such as the "Rwanda scheme", put forward by the Tories, Mr Pursglove declared that there must be a "change in the law".

He said: "What they're actually putting in place, though it sounds good on the face of it, is weaker than the situation that they inherited.

"And what the circumstances demand now is that willingness to have a deterrent like Rwanda, to be able to send people where you can't remove them back to country of origin.

"And to change the laws when it comes to the ECHR, the Human Rights Act, the trafficking conventions and the Refugee Convention and the like, to be able to remove people who come to this country illegally. I think that's where public opinion very firmly sits on this now."

Mr Pursglove concluded: "And all the while ministers don't do that, they're going to be out of step with where public opinion is.

"They're going to continue to become more and more unpopular but we need to have this problem materialised, because what they're putting in place just isn't adequate to the scale of the challenge."