Tuesday briefing: Inside Shabana Mahmood’s new UK asylum reforms

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood last April with French police officers at Zuydcoote, near Dunkirk. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Home secretary Shabana Mahmood last April with French police officers at Zuydcoote, near Dunkirk. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP/Getty Images Tuesday briefing: Inside Shabana Mahmood’s new UK asylum reforms In today’s newsletter: As the home secretary details reforms to the asylum system, a look at the challenges Labour faces – and what better story could be told about immigration Good morning. Last night home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, set out further planned reforms to the asylum system. A new means-tested scheme, which will see asylum seekers ordered to pay about £10,000 each for their state-funded living costs or be denied settled status in the UK, has been condemned by refugee charities for placing a tax on refugees fleeing war, torture and famine. Over the weekend, briefings suggested Mahmood also plans to speed up the opening of safe and legal routes to claim asylum, like employer sponsorship, as she bids to quell backbench critics, including former deputy leader Angela Rayner – a belated acknowledgment that the absence of such routes has forced many to make the perilous Channel crossing in those small boats that have become a totem for public and political anxieties around immigration. Both proposals are part of the immigration and asylum bill, which will go before MPs today as the home secretary faces both ways on what she’s described as a “moral mission”. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Sunder Katwala , director of the British Future thinktank, about the challenges facing Mahmood, and whether Andy Burnham can tell a better story about immigration than Keir Starmer. (Fun fact: Katwala is, like Burnham, a lifelong Everton supporter.) First, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Andy Burnham has set out his blueprint to transform the UK with a promise to improve living standards and restore faith in politics through the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen”. Finance | Crypto firms operating in the UK will be forced to prove they can weather market shocks and hold capital against risky assets as part of sweeping new rules announced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Germany | Four women and two men have been killed in a shooting at a youth welfare facility ⁠in northern Germany, police said. Two people including the suspected ⁠shooter were arrested. Heatwave | The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says. World news | A strong aftershock has rattled northern Venezuela , sending terrified residents racing on to the streets five days after the twin earthquakes that killed 1,719 people, left tens of thousands missing and triggered a growing humanitarian emergency. In depth: This bill is, in part, ‘a communication tool’ – but what exactly is it communi