Remove home secretary Mahmood and rip up her asylum plans, says Alf Dubs

Alf Dubs has been described as the ‘conscience of the Labour movement’. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Alf Dubs has been described as the ‘conscience of the Labour movement’. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian Remove home secretary Mahmood and rip up her asylum plans, says Alf Dubs Veteran Labour peer who fled Nazis as a child attacks ‘performative cruelty’ of Shabana Mahmood’s policies UK politics live – latest updates Shabana Mahmood should be moved out of the Home Office and her asylum policies of “performative cruelty” ripped up by Andy Burnham’s administration, Alf Dubs has said. The veteran Labour peer who came to the UK aged six in 1939 fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia said the home secretary’s talents “would be better used elsewhere in the cabinet”. Instead, an expected Burnham-led government could champion “human rights, compassion, fairness and equality” while advocating control of UK borders, Dubs said. His comments have come as Mahmood attempts to soften some of her hardline plans. She has been involved in talks to exempt care workers from the proposed changes to “indefinite leave to remain”. She is now embroiled in a standoff with Keir Starmer over the future of the immigration minister Mike Tapp , who is accused of passing off the plans as his own. Burnham is widely expected to become the prime minister as soon as 17 July after Starmer resigned from office this week. Asked if Mahmood should remain in post, Dubs told the Guardian: “I think her talents would be better used elsewhere in cabinet to allow the new PM free rein to put his own stamp on asylum and immigration policy. “At a time when the party needs unity, I do not believe that Shabana Mahmood’s policies represent the right approach.” View image in fullscreen Shabana Mahmood. Photograph: Thomas Krych/Zuma Press Wire/Shutterstock Dubs, who has been described as “the conscience of the Labour movement”, said: “This is Andy Burnham’s opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that the Starmer government made as regards asylum seekers and refugees. “The proposed changes to indefinite leave to remain, for instance, which would apply retrospectively to people who came here in good faith and according to the rules are simply unjust and should be reconsidered. “We must stand firmly by our commitments under the 1951 refugee convention and the ECHR and not attempt to water them down which is what the current proposals threaten to do.” A former Northern Ireland minister who helped draw up the Good Friday agreement, Dubs criticised Mahmood’s decision to suspend family reunion visas. She is expected to unveil an asylum and immigration bill on Tuesday that will make it easier to place children in handcuffs prior to deportation, or to remove sick children. Dubs, 93, was transported to the UK through the Kindertransport train, which he subsequently discovered had been organised by the London-based stockbroker Sir Nicholas Wint