Immigration and asylum Mahmood's proposals branded 'illiterate' by backbenchers

Downing Street has warned Labour MPs it expects them to back radical plans to make the UK less attractive to migrants and refugees, as some backbenchers said they expected fierce resistance to proposals that one called "economically and culturally illiterate".

- Peter Walker Jamie Grierson

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, will set out her revamp of the asylum and migration system on Monday, with officials saying it draws heavily on ideas used in Denmark, which has tight limits on family reunions and sends some refugees back if conditions improve in their home countries.

The Home Office plan will also include already-mooted ideas to change the way the European convention on human rights (ECHR) is interpreted by UK judges to make it easier to remove people without lengthy court cases.

Government officials are billing Mahmood’s crackdown as robust but also the only way to restore public trust in the asylum system and to potentially see off a Reform UK government that would dismantle asylum altogether. Asked if the government was confident backbenchers would not seek to block the plans, as they did in June with welfare changes, a Downing Street spokesperson said this would not be tolerated.