Polanski calls out Burnham’s ‘more of the same’ migration plan

According to the Times, Andy Burnham is going to keep Shabana Mahmood as the home secretary if he becomes PM. Given that this would be the most ‘more of the same’ possible, it’s understandable Zack Polanski has said the following:

The architect of Labour’s cruel plans on settled status and persecution of free speech and protest stays in place.

More of the same.

Only the Greens can take on failing Labour in Greater Manchester.https://t.co/AG52NPwyAS

— Zack Polanski (@ZackPolanski) June 19, 2026

Polanski vs Burnham

According to the Times:

Burnham has not handed out any formal offers of future cabinet jobs and his team has been clear that no deals will be struck, pointing to Burnham’s criticism of Westminster “horse-trading”.

However, he is understood to be planning to offer Mahmood to stay as home secretary in order to maintain stability in a cabinet post that will be crucial to Labour’s chances of beating Reform UK at the next election.

This is classic Burnham, of course. Complain about something with one breath and propose it with the next.

The argument for keeping Mahmood in place is that her hardline stance will help them win back Reform voters. The problem with this argument is that the strategy has already failed. Matching Reform’s rhetoric tells the public that Farage was ahead of the curve, and if the man is such a political visionary, why not back him to form a government?

Polanski is spot on to call these things out, anyway, and we’ve covered them ourselves. On the issue of ‘settled status’, Skwawkbox wrote for the Canary:

Mahmood’s planned changes include removing the current five-year ‘leave to remain’ for refugees. She also wants to force a ‘review’ of status every thirty months. At the same time, she intends to increase the length of residency required to be able to apply for “settled status” from five years to ten. She also plans to remove financial support for refugees. However, she still does not guarantee them the right to work.

Burnham himself criticised Mahmood’s indefinite leave plans, by the way, saying it would leave people “in a sense of limbo and unable to integrate”. Burnham would later drop his opposition, and this is why we’ve been calling him Andy U-Turnham; because the man only seems to voice opinions to give himself something to flip-flop on later.

Labour authoritarianism

On Mahmood’s war on free speech and protest, we wrote the following about her National Security (State Threats) Bill:

The Bill would amend the National Security Act 2023 to introduce a power for the Home Secretary to designate bodies involved in “foreign power threat activity” by regulation, if they believe it is necessary for the safety or interests of the UK.

The worry is that the government will use the new powers to clamp down on protests against our foreign misadventures. In other words, the UK will continue to support invasions and genocide, and if you object, the state will deem you to be in cahoots with a foreign threat.

Mr. Indecision

So yeah, people are right to be worried about all this.

The one silver lining is that there’s every chance Burnham will back away from this stuff when the public turns against him. The man needs to be liked, after all, and the public will not like what Mahmood has planned for us all.

Featured image via the Canary