Shabana Mahmood told a heckler to “f*** right off” during a live podcast recording in London’s West End, before accusing those who challenge her immigration stance of harbouring a form of racism rooted in the belief that a “brown woman” should not be permitted to hold certain views.
The Home Secretary was appearing on comedian Matt Forde’s Political Party podcast at the Duchess Theatre when a man in the audience confronted her, sarcastically claiming he wanted to “personally thank” her for “out-reforming Reform.” Two further hecklers chanted “refugees welcome” before being removed from the venue by security.
Rather than deflecting the interruptions, Mahmood addressed them directly and forcefully, describing her reaction to Forde in terms that left little room for ambiguity. “That’s why I said this individual can just f*** right off,” she said, “because I know I belong in my own country. You’re not going to be able to do that to me.”
She framed the heckling not merely as political disagreement but as something more personal and more troubling. Describing the hecklers as “white liberals,” she argued that their challenge to her immigration position was underpinned by an assumption that she, as a brown woman, was stepping outside the views she was expected to hold. “How dare you, a brown woman, say a thing that we white liberals think you’re not allowed to say?” she said, adding: “Well, I’m saying it.”
Mahmood went on to argue that dismissing her position as an imitation of Reform UK’s politics was itself a form of delegitimisation — not just of her personally, but of the millions of people, including ethnic minorities, who hold similar concerns about high levels of illegal immigration. “It’s a way of delegitimising the perfectly valid, legitimate views of millions of people in this country,” she said. “And it’s not acceptable.”
She was equally direct about her sense of identity. “I’m not going to let a tin-pot racist or some random heckler claw away at the foundations of who I am,” she said. “I’m a proud English woman. I’m a proud Brit. I’m a hugely proud Muslim.”
Forde praised Mahmood after the recording, saying she had handled being “screamed at by two posh yobs with total composure.”
The incident is unlikely to quieten internal Labour criticism of the Home Secretary, who has faced pushback from parts of the left over a series of immigration measures, including plans to make refugee status temporary rather than indefinite and to extend the qualifying period for permanent residency for legal migrants.
It was not the first time Mahmood has used blunt language to assert her right to speak freely on immigration. In the House of Commons last November, she told a Liberal Democrat MP challenging her position that she is “regularly called a f****** P*** and told to go back home.”
