Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plan to use visa restrictions to press other governments to repatriate their citizens drew immediate scrutiny after officials said only the United Kingdom, and not other Five Eyes partners, would apply such measures.
Mahmood told broadcasters during a meeting of the Five Eyes security partners in London that countries that “do not play ball” could face curtailment of visa access if they refused to accept nationals with no legal basis to remain in the UK. The Home Office later said the meeting had produced a commitment to “much closer working” between partner countries but did not provide details on joint visa penalties or which countries would implement them.
Mahmood, who was joined at the two-day summit by United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Gary Anandasangaree, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and New Zealand’s Minister of Defence Judith Collins, said the proposal could involve “possibly the cutting of visas in the future” to encourage cooperation on returns. The government did not disclose whether the United States, Canada, Australia or New Zealand would apply reciprocal visa restrictions.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticized the announcement as “shameless spin,” saying the visa penalty powers originated in domestic legislation and were unrelated to the Five Eyes partnership. The legal mechanism for imposing visa penalties is derived from the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, introduced under a previous administration, which created a discretionary “visa penalty provision” for use against countries that refuse repatriations.
A Home Office spokesman said the ministers agreed to step up coordination on removing foreign nationals who have “no legal basis to remain” in partner countries, but the department declined to specify what coordinated action would look like in practice. The final text of a communique from the meeting was not expected to be published until the summit concluded.
Officials and lawmakers warned that unilateral UK measures could carry diplomatic and economic risks. British officials have identified countries that frequently decline to accept returns — including Pakistan, India, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Gabon — and analysts cautioned that targeted visa curbs could provoke retaliatory steps, with potential consequences for trade and for universities that recruit international students.
Labour backbenchers who previously opposed separate visa measures announced by the government were also flagged as a potential source of internal resistance if new rules limited the ability of foreign-born constituents to bring relatives to the UK.
Mahmood said she would not pursue the UK’s withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, a step advocated by some critics of current asylum arrangements, and instead signaled plans to change domestic legislation and guidance on how convention rights are applied in the UK. She said the government would “come forward with changes to our domestic legislation and the guidance in terms of how we apply some of the convention rights legally here at home.”
On identity checks, Mahmood said her “long-term personal political view has always been in favour of ID cards” and indicated ministers were considering digital identity options, though she did not commit to compulsory national ID cards.
The announcement comes amid continued pressure over Channel crossings. The Home Office said more than 30,000 people had crossed in small boats so far this year, an increase of about 37% compared with the same point last year, including 1,097 arrivals reported on Saturday. A separate “one in, one out” returns arrangement with France secured by Labour nearly two months ago had not produced a removal at the time of the summit, and proposed changes to French law to give police powers to stop boats offshore were reported to face uncertainty after the collapse of the French government.
Ministers at the London meeting framed the issue as one of balancing human rights obligations and border security, but opponents and some legal experts said any unilateral use of visa penalties would need to be carefully tailored to avoid breaching international obligations and to limit unintended diplomatic fallout. The Home Office said further details of planned measures would be set out in coming weeks.