Shabana Mahmood told a heckler to ‘f*** right off’ after he accused her of copying Nigel Farage’s Reform party with her immigration policies.
The Home Secretary was confronted by a man who said he wanted to ‘personally thank you for out-reforming Reform’ during a live podcast recording last night.
Two other hecklers chanted ‘refugees welcome’ before being carried out by security at the Duchess Theatre in London’s West End.
Ms Mahmood went on to accuse the hecklers of being guilty of a type of racism.
Describing them as ‘white liberals’, the Home Secretary said they appeared to believe that as a ‘brown woman’ she should not be allowed to hold particular views.
Ms Mahmood accused the hecklers of trying to put her ‘in a box’ and ‘de-legitimise’ the ‘perfectly valid’ concerns about high levels of illegal immigration.
She said claims she was copying Reform to to get votes were ‘just a way of de-legitimising the point of view that I bring to the table’.
Explaining her reaction to comedian Matt Forde during the recording of his podcast Political Party, the minister added: ‘It’s also a way of de-legitimising the perfectly valid, legitimate views of millions of people in this country, including ethnic minorities in this country.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood told a heckler to ‘f*** right off’
‘And it’s not acceptable, right?
‘And also, you’re trying to put me in a box, which includes a lot of people who think I don’t even belong in my own country. That’s why I said this individual can just f*** right off, because I know I belong in my own country.
‘You’re not going to be able to do that to me.’
Suggesting the criticism of her immigration stance was partly motivated by racism, Ms Mahmood said: ‘I do think there is that element of it, which is: “How dare you, a brown woman, say a thing that we white liberals think you’re not allowed to say?” Well, I’m saying it.’
Ms Mahmood continued: ‘I’m not going to let a tin-pot racist or some random heckler or anybody else claw away at the foundations of who I am as a person.
‘I’m a proud English woman. I’m a proud Brit, I’m a hugely proud Muslim. That is the absolute core of my life.’
After the show, Matt Forde praised her for for the way she ‘handled being screamed at by two posh yobs with total composure’.
He added: ‘Thank you to the rest of the audience who came along and behaved.’
Ms Mahmood has been criticised by some on the Left – including within her own party – over a number of immigration policies.
She has unveiled how refugee status will become temporary rather than indefinite, and has also outlined how legal migrants will have to wait years longer to qualify for permission to stay in Britain permanently.
It was not the first time Ms Mahmood has used strong language to defend her right to hold her views on immigration.
In the House of Commons chamber in November she dismissed criticism from Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson, telling him she is ‘regularly called a f***ing P*** and told to go back home’.
