Shabana Mahmood has no chance of stopping the small boats crisis because Labour is too “spineless” to quit the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), it has been claimed. Former Brexit Party MEP Belinda de Lucy said the new Home Secretary is tougher than her “wet wipe” predecessor Yvette Cooper, but will still fail to end the Channel crossings.

She told the Daily Expresso, our weekday news show, that Ms Mahmood will end up simply moving around illegal migrants rather than deporting them. Asked about Ms Mahmood’s appointment, Ms de Lucy blasted: “She’s obviously famous at the moment for having signed that deportation letter to stop the criminals being deported from England in 2020, and I think that worried a few people. But I do think she’s seen as a bit tougher than Yvette Cooper, a bit more blue-collar Labour.

“But we shall see, because they’ve tied their own hands with the ECHR over the weekend, confirming they were not going to leave the ECHR.

“They’re not going to reset case law to stop all the paedophiles and rapists having the right to stay here.

“They’re not going to do any of that. So anything she does isn’t going to reduce the number of people who come here by boat at all. She’s just going to move them around a bit.”

Ms Mahmood confirmed on Monday that Labour will not leave the ECHR because it would have “other consequences that we think are not in our national interest”.

But the Cabinet minister said Britain can play a “leading role” in reforming human rights laws.

Home Office figures show 1,097 migrants crossed the Channel in 17 boats on Saturday, bringing the total in 2025 to 30,100.

Ms de Lucy said the Home Secretary does not have the power to stop the boats.

“She has no levers, because they are absolutely committed to these outdated, dangerous international treaties that are making nation states borderless, that are putting citizens at risk from foreign criminals and terrorists and men who run away from women and children to break into other countries,” said the former MEP.

“It’s a massive beacon saying ‘come here, our door is open, we will give you everything, it doesn’t matter how heinous you are, you’ll never be deported’.

“And Labour will not have the spine to ever, ever leave the ECHR or the Refugee Convention or even amend it so they have nowhere to go.”

Asked about Ms Cooper, who is now Foreign Secretary, Ms de Lucy replied: “I think she is a bit of a soft wet wipe.

“She’s obviously had the refugee welcome placard, that’s a photo everyone remembers.”