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With her appointment in September as Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood has become one of the country's most senior politicians, responsible for tackling migration, refugees and policing, core challenges for the Starmer Government.

A self-declared social conservative - "If you were trying to put me in a box you would say social, small-c conservative," Mahmood admits to a "natural affinity for the faith, family and flag element of Blue Labour." Her appointment was seen as another triumph for Starmer's Chief of Staff and behind-the-scenes kingmaker Morgan McSweeney.

Unsurprisingly, her appointment was met with acclaim by the Blue Labour leadership. Maurice Glasman called the move "fantastic", compared Mahmood to Elizabeth I and declared, "she's now clearly the leader of our part of the party" while Jonathan Rutherford with hyperbolic exaggeration hailed her as "perhaps the most astute and able politician of her generation". Yet, until now, she had remained unknown to most Labour supporters and the wider public. So what do we know about her politics?

What is Her Background?

Mahmood's grandparents came to Birmingham for work from Azad Kashmir in the 1960s. Her father was a civil engineer who worked in Saudi Arabia where Mahmood lived for the first seven years of her life. She then lived and went to school in Birmingham before gaining a place at Oxford University, where she took a degree in law. She then worked as a barrister until her election as Labour MP for the safe seat of Ladywood in inner-city Birmingham in 2010. She had no discernible track record of political activity prior to her selection but her dad was the chair of the Birmingham Labour Party. In the words of one long-standing, local councillor, "she was manoeuvred into the seat."

In her maiden speech she proudly promoted the diversity of her constituency and gave a clear, positive definition of multi-culturalism. "…..while the people of my constituency might have come from different places, the destination they seek is the same - a place of greater opportunity and the same chance as everyone else to succeed."

She recalled how "My grandfather came to this country from Pakistan in the 1960s. He worked long hours on a low wage and made sacrifices so that his family could access greater opportunity." She paid tribute "…to the successes of the Labour party and the Labour Government, who created the opportunities that made my family's journey and that of so many ordinary hard-working families possible. I believe that opportunity and the chance to fulfil one's aspirations is the birth-right of every one of our citizens."

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The Hostile Environment Revisited

As Home Secretary Mahmood had an opportunity to make her grandparents' aspirations come true for successor generations of migrants. Instead, she is aping recent Tory predecessors in her role - Theresa May, Priti Patel, Suella Braverman - by instituting a "hostile environment" for them. On 29th September as Home Secretary she announced a new contribution-based settlement model to reduce net migration, boost integration and reduce pressure on public services.

This stated that "To ensure people contribute to the economy and society before being able to settle in the UK, under the new model they will have to be lawfully resident in the UK for the minimum of 10 years, double the current period." Furthermore she set out tough new criteria for gaining indefinite leave to remain in the UK, including learning English to a high standard - defined in other briefings as equivalent to A level - not having taken any state benefits, and giving bac...