Shabana Mahmood’s immigration crackdown might be sabotaged by Home Office officials, a former No 10 adviser to Rishi Sunak has warned.

Jack Sellers, who worked for Mr Sunak in Downing Street when he was Conservative Prime Minister, also suggested that for the Home Secretary’s plan to be a success boat crossings would have to halve next year. So far 38,000 people have crossed the Channel illegally.

Ms Mahmood has won praised from the Conservatives and other Government critics for a tough crackdown on illegal migration unveiled this week in the Commons, although she has declined to tell by how much crossings might fall.

Sellers told GB News’ Chopper’s Political Podcast: “Look they’ve had a good week. They’ve had very good headlines.

I think Shabana Mahmood would have been very happy with how the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday coverage went, and how it’s being received.

“It looks like they’re being strong and taking on the issue. And the opposition parties have sort of warmed to it as well.

“But they’ve got a long way to go. They’ve got potentially a Home Office, in which a lot of the Home Office are quite resilient and resistant to this sort of change.

“I’m not someone who says ‘let’s reform the blob. The Civil Service has got lots of excellent people, but there’s lots of people in the Home Office who will completely not agree with this approach.”

Asked what success looked like for Mahmood’s crackdown, he said assuming an election in three or four years time “next year, if they can say the boats have halved, I think that is progress”.

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