Blair commends Mahmood amid leadership speculation

Tony Blair has effectively endorsed Shabana Mahmood as a future Labour leader, praising her as “brilliant” and “impressive” in a joint public appearance with the home secretary. The former Labour prime minister hosted a Christmas event for the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) alongside Ms Mahmood, which she used to deliver a passionate personal and political manifesto.

- DAVID MADDOX POLITICAL EDITOR

Amid widespread speculation that Sir Keir Starmer could be forced to step down as prime minister, Ms Mahmood has emerged among the front runners to succeed him, with Sir Tony saying he was “thrilled” to get the chance to interview her.

The TBI event took place at a prestigious hotel in Whitehall, just across the road from where the current prime minister was simultaneously hosting lobby journalists in Downing Street. Sir Tony praised the home secretary’s “radical” style and the “political philosophy” behind her crackdown on immigration, comparing it to his own approach in power.

Ms Mahmood used the prestigious Labour platform to speak of her struggle to overcome social media abuse and make her mark as a “brown Muslim woman”. She would not give in to “some two-bit idiot on Twitter”, she said.

With Labour struggling in the polls, her name is mentioned alongside those of the health secretary Wes Streeting, energy secretary Ed Miliband, and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner as a potential candidate to replace Sir Keir in Downing Street in the new year.

In a relaxed performance, the home secretary joked that the criminal gangs behind illegal immigration were so clever that if they set up conventional businesses, Britain’s economic ills would soon be over. And she said that tip-offs from voters in her Birmingham Ladywood constituency, about “dodgy care home” immigration scams, and abuses of the rules that allow spouses of immigrants settled in Britain to join them, were shaping her immigration curbs.

Ms Mahmood said the British people are “decent, honest and tolerant” towards immigrants - but only if they come here legally. And she claimed that there is support for strong controls on illegal and legal migration from both “white and nonwhite working-class communities”.