None of Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms is as radical as the terms in which she is talking about this issue. In an op-ed teeing up Monday’s announcement, she writes: ‘Unless we act, we risk losing popular consent for having an asylum system at all.’ I cannot remember the last time a Home Secretary made such a clear-headed statement of the facts: asylum policies, like everything else government does, is contingent on the consent of the governed.

Mahmood’s plans might sit firmly to the right of the parliamentary Labour party but they represent the leftmost asylum policy the British public would be willing to tolerate

When it comes to border security, migration and asylum, too many in the decision-making classes associate democracy with demagogy. The voters are assumed to be too ignorant, frankly too racist, to be allowed a say on who should enter their country and under what circumstances. Everyone is for participatory democracy until the demos wants to participate in the wrong thing.

Many voters, including those who believe in a generous asylum system, feel disregarded by current policies,........

© The Spectator