Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has condemned what she called “misinformation” about sharia law being introduced in London, after fresh comments by US President Donald Trump attacking Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan and claiming the capital is moving towards Islamic law.
Speaking in London on Thursday, Mahmood praised Khan and said assertions about sharia law in the capital were “plain wrong”, as she launched a package of immigration and asylum reforms that the Government says are aimed at tightening access to taxpayer-funded support and reducing incentives for irregular migration.
“The US president will say some things that we agree with and others that we disagree with,” Mahmood said, when asked about Trump’s remarks, which also included criticism of the UK Government’s stance on Iran.
“We are getting our immigration system under control. That is my job,” she said.
Turning to London, Mahmood said: “I think he’s doing an excellent job as Mayor of London and there is a lot of misinformation that is often put out about what’s happening in London, whether that’s on crime rates or whether that’s on things like sharia law, for example, which are just misinformation. That’s plain wrong.”
She added that Khan had “won a mandate from the people of London on three separate occasions”.
Trump has repeatedly criticised Khan in recent years and has claimed London “wants to turn to sharia law”, alongside broader comments suggesting the UK is being harmed by immigration. UK fact-checking organisations have previously said there is no evidence to support claims that the Mayor of London or City Hall is seeking to introduce sharia law, noting that sharia councils have no authority to override UK law.
Mahmood’s remarks came as ministers confirmed a series of changes affecting asylum support, refugee status and legal migration rules, alongside tougher measures aimed at illegal working and removals.
In a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research, the Home Secretary said Labour was meeting “at a difficult time” in which the party’s identity was being “contested, sometimes bitterly”, with the debate over migration at the centre of that argument. She said Labour was a “broad church” and argued that “more Labour doesn’t mean more Green, just like more Labour doesn’t mean more Reform”.
The Home Office said the reforms include removing the legal duty to provide asylum accommodation and support and replacing it with a power to do so, making assistance conditional in some circumstances on compliance with rules. Ministers say the change is designed to allow support to be withheld from people who can support themselves, as well as those accused of breaking conditions, including by working illegally.
According to the Home Office, more than 107,000 people were receiving asylum support as of December, including more than 30,000 housed in around 200 hotels, at an average cost of £53,000 per person per year. The department said total spending on asylum accommodation was £4 billion last year.
The Home Secretary also set out a pilot scheme offering increased financial incentives for some families who have exhausted their asylum claims to leave the UK voluntarily. In her speech, Mahmood said families could be offered £10,000 per person up to a maximum of £40,000 per family, arguing that the approach could reduce costs and encourage voluntary departures. She said a family of three placed in an asylum hotel can cost up to £158,000 per year.
In a separate broadcast interview on Sky News, Mahmood was challenged by Rustam Wahab of UK Fact Check Politics over whether the Government was targeting asylum seekers rather than employers who profit from illegal labour. Wahab asked why the “headline penalty” was aimed at asylum seekers and warned the policy could expand the underground labour market.
Mahmood replied that enforcement would be aimed at both sides. “We have to take action of both,” she said, adding that the Government was “also, tackling employers as well… who break the rules”, and that enforcement action had increased. She described the approach as “two pronged” on illegal working, while saying the broader reforms were intended to alter “the incentives and the behaviour of asylum seekers” and “change the calculus” for those considering crossing the Channel in small boats.
Alongside asylum support changes, the Government has also amended immigration rules to reduce the initial length of leave to remain granted to many refugees from five years to 30 months, with a review at the end of that period. The Home Secretary framed the shift as returning refugee protection to a “temporary sanctuary” model, with status renewed where protection is still needed and removed where conditions in the home country are deemed safe. Home Office documents say the change applies to people making asylum claims on or after 2 March 2026.
On legal migration and settlement, Mahmood said the Government is consulting on making settlement more clearly “earned”, with a proposed norm of moving from five years to 10 years before applying, alongside new conditions including a clean criminal record, no debt to the taxpayer, a record of work and tax-paying, and higher English language standards. The latest immigration rules changes also raise the English language requirement for settlement to level B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages across a range of routes.
The Government has also introduced new visa restrictions under what it has called an “emergency brake”, suspending certain sponsored study visa routes for Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan, and limiting skilled worker visas for Afghan nationals, with the Home Office citing high levels of abuse. The measures are due to take effect on 26 March. Separate changes introduce visit visa requirements for travellers from Nicaragua and St Lucia.
Some of the asylum support measures are being implemented through secondary legislation, with the Government setting out staged commencement dates in late March and early June.
Mahmood said the overall approach was intended to be “fair, but firm” and “compassionate, but controlled”, warning that a perceived loss of control over migration can erode public trust in the state.
The reforms have already prompted criticism from some refugee organisations, which argue that shorter protection periods risk undermining integration and increasing administrative burdens through repeated reviews, while some Labour MPs have raised concerns about rhetoric and the potential for wrongful decisions affecting long-term residents.
Downing Street has not responded directly to Trump’s latest remarks about London, but ministers have previously rejected claims about sharia law as false. Mahmood’s intervention on Thursday placed the Home Secretary at the centre of both the Government’s operational changes to the immigration system and a widening political argument over how Labour positions itself on migration amid pressure from opposition parties.
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