Asylum Policy

Debate between Shabana Mahmood and Emma Foody

Monday 17th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Shabana Mahmood]

I do believe it complies with those principles. At the moment at the end of the five years there is already supposed to be a safe country review. We will bring that forward and make the safe country review a real thing. As I have said, we will also create, alongside the core protection route, the protection work and study route, because we want to encourage people to make a contribution to this country.

[Emma Foody (Cramlington and Killingworth) (Lab/Co-op)]

In a previous life I was a 999 call taker with the ambulance service and had the awful experience of answering a call from a distraught family desperate for help. I could not help them save their loved one because they could not understand the life-saving instructions I was trying to give them over the phone due to the language barrier. Does the Home Secretary agree that there is nothing progressive about defending a status quo where vulnerable people are unable to access emergency services due to an inability to speak our language?

[Shabana Mahmood]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I endorse every word that she said.