UK may cut visas for countries refusing illegal migrant returns

Starmer’s equally unpopular government is prioritising a harder line on immigration - an issue that leads opinion polling as the public's top concern and that has fuelled a poll lead for Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

Mahmood said she would take a strong approach.

"That does mean saying to countries who do not take their citizens back, that we're not simply going to allow our laws to remain unenforced, that they do have to play ball," she told broadcasters in an interview. "And if cutting visas is one of the ways to do that, then I'll do whatever it takes."

(Reporting by Alistair Smout Additional reporting by William James and Sam Tabahriti Editing by Frances Kerry)