We may be three years away from the next general election, but the battle lines are already being drawn.
No political issue is more potent or more divisive than the question of immigration.
In a nation not often roused to public anger, the streets of small towns have been convulsed with local fury over the presence of asylum seekers, particularly where they have been housed in much-loved local hotels.
And the seemingly endless stream of small boats crossing the English Channel, despite promises by all parties, has served as a conspicuous demonstration of political impotence.
Britain’s conventional parties are facing an existential crisis. For the first time in our modern political history, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have all fallen behind Reform and the Greens in popularity.
Sir Keir Starmer and his government have to make a decision. Do they lean left, under pressure from Zack Polanski’s Greens? Or should they acknowledge the extraordinary advance of Nigel Farage and Reform UK, which has now topped the polls consistently for almost a year?
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No figure will be more important in signalling which way Labour turns than Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary. Herself the child of immigrants and a practising Muslim, she is, this week, signalling a tough line on migration that would smash many of the taboos that constrained her predecessors.
In a special hour-long programme, the home secretary makes her case for radical changes by Sir Keir’s government – and the defence of her controversial plans is aimed as much at her own party as it is at the wider electorate.
Some might ask, can Shabana save Labour?
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Watch Trevor Phillips’ exclusive interview with Shabana Mahmood in a Politics Hub special from 7pm on Thursday 5 March across all Sky News platforms.
