Shabana Mahmood’s promotion from lord chancellor to home secretary, making her the first Muslim woman in charge of a great office of state, comes with an in-tray groaning under the weight of perilous tasks.

The MP for Birmingham Ladywood has won admirers for being an effective justice secretary and persuasive communicator while forcing through potentially explosive policies such as prisoners’ early release schemes and a new sentencing regime.

But her ability to tackle her new responsibilities – which include immigration, national security and policing – will be seen as key to curbing the growing electoral threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.

Reducing the number of people crossing the Channel in small boats

Since 2018, six Conservative home secretaries and Mahmood’s predecessor, Yvette Cooper, have tried and failed to curb a steady rise in the number of people attempting to make it to the UK by climbing into small boats in France.

Critics have pointed out that the “push factors” of war, famine and the climate crisis are beyond the control of the UK government. But at the general election, Labour pledged to “smash” people-smuggling gangs and reduce Channel crossing numbers.

Last month, Starmer faced criticism when it emerged that the numbers crossing the Channel in small boats since Labour came to power had surpassed 50,000. Gangs continue to operate relatively untroubled in northern France.

Of Pakistani heritage and representing a multiracial constituency, Mahmood is expected to introduce policies that will make it harder to apply for asylum if an applicant has arrived by an “irregular” route, and make it easier to remove them.

In an interview with the Spectator in May, Mahmood said: “I look at a community that I represent which is 70% non-white. If you ask my constituents, they want a fair managed migration system.

“Most of them will say they came in on the basis of really quite strict rules that they followed to come to this country to work and make a life for themselves.

“I just don’t know why we’ve got ourselves in a tangle talking about migration controls on the left of politics, because it’s really pretty fundamental to the way a lot of our voters think.”

Cutting the number of asylum hotels

Labour poured scorn upon the Conservatives during the last general election for housing asylum seekers in hotels and pledged to end the practice when in power. Thirteen months later, Starmer’s government faced violent demonstrations and voter disillusionment over the same issue.

After a surge in small boat arrivals, there has been an 8% rise to 32,059 in the number of people awaiting asylum decisions in the UK who are living in hotels. Demands for hotel closures multiplied after an asylum seeker staying at the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman.

Mahmood will be seeking to speed up the rate at which asylum claims are heard; make it harder for asylum decisions to be challenged; and will want to find alternative places to house asylum seekers as they wait for their cases to be heard.

Ideas recently flagged by Labour include housing more people seeking asylum in disused military bases, and overhauling the asylum appeals system to replace it with independent adjudicators.

Cooper also floated the idea of using disused flats, student accommodation, warehouses and “modular buildings on industrial sites” as an alternative to hotels.

Cutting net migration

Following Nigel Farage’s calls for a “net zero” immigration policy, and after the loss of a safe Labour seat to Reform in the Runcorn and Helsby byelection, Starmer pledged in May to cut the number of people given leave to enter the UK by “regular” means.

Mahmood will examine proposed changes to study and work visas and the introduction of English-language tests, which would result in about 100,000 fewer people entering the UK.

In May, Mahmood defended the prime minister’s claim that without curbs, the UK risked becoming “an island of strangers” – a phrase which critics argued echoed Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech.

Attempts to bring down net migration could face opposition from businesses concerned by skills shortages and universities concerned by a clampdown on overseas visas, while the NHS and care sector could ask for visas to allow more nurses and care workers from abroad.

The Palestine Action ban

Mahmood will face a difficult decision on whether to double down on Yvette Cooper’s decision to proscribe as terrorists the group that had caused millions of pounds worth of criminal damage.

The government banned Palestine Action under terrorism laws after paint was daubed on jets at RAF Brize Norton. Police said the act caused £7m worth of damage. Membership of, or support for, Palestine Action is now a crime that can lead to up to 14 years in jail.

The ban is being opposed by thousands of people concerned that the decision to proscribe the group is disproportionate and has widened the usual definition of terrorism.

The Home Office has argued that the group is violent and the ban is covered by existing terror laws.

Mahmood knows that Labour’s stance on the Israel-Gaza conflict has lost votes in some areas. Her majority was reduced to about 3,500 voters in the 2024 general election against an independent candidate who accused her of failing Palestinian children.

On Saturday, hundreds of people plan to risk being apprehended when they take part in the demonstration in London’s Parliament Square – with more than 1,000 set to sit silently, holding signs saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action” – Scotland Yard said people showing support for the group “know their actions are unlawful”.