Shabana Mahmood has been reappointed Home Secretary as the new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, builds his government after taking over at 10 Downing Street.
Other key appointments made on Monday include John Healey as the new Chancellor, while Ed Miliband was named Foreign Secretary and Wes Streeting Defence Secretary in the new Cabinet.
Burnham became the UK’s seventh prime minister in just over a decade and named his ministerial team after entering No. 10.
Mahmood, who is of Muslim Pakistani heritage, has become increasingly controversial among British Muslims due to her harsh anti-immigration policies, a perceived lack of loyalty to past principles, such as support for Palestine, and her staunch defence of the Israeli football team Maccabi Tel Aviv after their fans were banned from attending a fixture at Aston Villa over public safety concerns.
In March 2026, Mahmood oversaw the banning of the annual Muslim-organised Al Quds Day rally – a pro-Palestine gathering expressing opposition to Zionism – much to the pleasure of pro-Israel groups. She has not banned protests which spread fear and hate against Britain’s Muslims, such as the far-right Unite the Kingdom rally. However, following a pressure campaign, the Home Office did eventually ban foreign speakers, including the Qur’an desecrator Valentina Gomez, from attending.
Mahmood has also defended the government’s controversial decision to proscribe Palestine Action, a direct action protest group which opposes UK arms sales to Israel.
It is expected that Burnham will attempt to rebuild relations with the British Muslim community following a sustained period of rebellion as Muslims mobilised against Labour to politically punish the party for its immoral stance on Gaza.
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Mahmood’s continued position could prove an obstacle, as her reputation is unlikely to be easy to repair within the community.
Several recent constituency projection models have suggested Mahmood could lose her Birmingham Ladywood parliamentary seat at the next general election if current voting trends persist.
Before the 2024 election, The Times described Birmingham Ladywood as one of Labour’s unexpected “battleground” seats because of Akhmed Yakoob’s pro-Gaza independent challenge. It reported that Labour believed the seat had become significantly more competitive following boundary changes and voter anger over Gaza.
In 2019, Mahmood secured a strong 33,355 votes and a majority of 28,582. However, after the 2024 election, Mahmood’s majority fell sharply to just 3,421 votes.
Jahangir Mohammed from the Ayaan Institute summarised the feeling across large sections of the Muslim community regarding Mahmood’s current reputation.
“It would have been better to replace her. In her time in office she has shown she is a weak career politician with no clear principles, who caves in to pressure from the race-baiting mob and influential interest groups. She has been bad for traditional British political values, bad for civil society and bad for Muslims.”
