Shabana Mahmood Says Most Women Crossing the Channel in Small Boats Have Suffered Rape

Shabana Mahmood claimed that nearly all women attempting to reach the UK via small boats from northern France have been raped during the crossing.

In an interview on The Rest Is Politics podcast, the home secretary warned that far‑right activists wearing balaclavas would ‘kill’ or ‘expel me from my own country’ if they ever gained power.

Speaking with former Conservative minister Rory Stewart and Tony Blair’s ex‑adviser Alastair Campbell, Mahmood said that as long as criminal gangs control who gets to cross, sexual abusers will continue to prey on most asylum seekers.

She explained: ‘We do not control this border. The process that determines who ends up in northern France and boards a dinghy is run by criminal gangs, who are also people traffickers.’

“You can practically guarantee that every woman in northern France has likely been raped on the way. Many men have also been abused and threatened. This is not the basis on which we should decide who is allowed to come to the UK, seek sanctuary, and become part of our society.”

When Campbell asked about balaclava‑clad protesters blockading ports and praising her policies, Mahmood told them to ‘sod off’.

She added: “They are merely troublemakers. If they could, they would kill me instantly and certainly try to drive me out of my own country. We must be clear about who they are: they do not see me as a true Brit and they resent my Muslim identity.”

Mahmood also said she identifies with the pro‑Palestinian movement and felt ‘very uncomfortable’ about the arrests of activists who opposed the ban on Palestine Action.

Merseyside police arrested 82 people on Monday at the Labour Party conference on suspicion of wearing or carrying items linked to a proscribed organisation.

During a demonstration organised by Defend Our Juries, dozens gathered outside the Liverpool conference centre, many holding homemade banners expressing support for Palestine Action.

Mahmood said: “For those of us who have spent our lives supporting the Palestinian cause, these are people you might recognise from marches; seeing them fall foul of section 13 of the Terrorism Act feels deeply unsettling.”

However, she defended enforcing the ban despite her personal feelings: “You must be able to uphold your principles, even when it is uncomfortable, because you will want to apply them most strongly when you feel passionately about an issue.”

Authorities were preparing on Sunday for a migrant dinghy heading toward the south coast. French coastguard and rescue vessels were shadowing the boat as it approached the Channel boundary, according to ship‑tracking data.

The vessel appeared to have departed from near Utah Beach in Normandy on Sunday morning.

Caroline Dinenage, Conservative MP for Gosport, Hampshire, said there was “nothing to suggest” the boat would land on her constituency’s coast, but police were “making preparations should that situation change.”

A government spokesperson said: “The Border Security Command operates around the clock to monitor the Channel and protect our border. It is essential that we continue to detain, screen and process every small‑boat arrival.”

Imran Hussain, director of the Refugee Council, welcomed the home secretary’s acknowledgement of widespread sexual violence but questioned why the government has closed safe and legal routes that could help asylum seekers avoid falling into traffickers’ hands.

He added: “Our services show that women and girls fleeing war and persecution experience sexual violence both in the conflicts they escape and on the journeys they are forced to undertake in search of safety.”

“That is why, while we welcome the government’s recent announcement of new safe routes, we urged that they not be limited to a few hundred people. Last year the government terminated the family‑reunion scheme, the safe route that overwhelmingly benefits women and children.”

“It is right to highlight the dangers women face on these journeys, but we should not close the safe routes that could protect them from harm. Protecting women means expanding, not reducing, safe routes.”

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