Shabana Mahmood, the UK’s new Home Secretary, faces scrutiny over her past votes on Gaza and links to pro-Palestinian activism as tensions rise.
(photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X, SECTION 27A COPYRIGHT ACT)
Following the cabinet reshuffle in the United Kingdom on Friday, attention is on new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who will need to tackle growing immigration problems, as well as domestic tensions caused by the Israel-Hamas war.
Mahmood has been the member of Parliament representing Birmingham Ladywood since 2010, serving as justice minister from July 2024 to September 2025. She was born and raised a devout Muslim to Pakistani parents in Birmingham and is now the most senior Muslim politician in Britain. She is also a qualified barrister.
In terms of her stance on Israel and Gaza, she has been seen with “Free Palestine” placards, including at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally, and she abstained on the vote to proscribe Palestine Action earlier in the summer. Her stance on Palestine Action will be in the spotlight now that she is taking over the helm from Yvette Cooper, who was responsible for the ban.
Back in 2014, Mahmood protested a Birmingham branch of the supermarket Sainsbury’s, demanding it stop selling goods from Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory. She voted “No” on making BDS illegal in 2024.
However, she has abstained from several key votes on Israel-Gaza related topics, including a Scottish National Party call for “Ceasefire in Occupied Gaza” Amendment in November 2023, a call for suspension of arms sales to Israel in March 2024, and she did not sign a letter urging the UK to uphold ICC arrest warrants against Israeli officials.
Mahmood also condemned Hamas’s massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, writing a letter to her constituents on October 12 saying “I unequivocally condemn the despicable actions of Hamas, who targeted innocent Israeli civilians. The hostages must be returned.”
“These atrocities were committed by terrorists who do not seek peace and have set back the just cause of Palestinian freedom and statehood, which I have supported my whole life,” she said.
In fact, her abstention from certain Gaza-related votes has led to strong criticism from pro-Palestinian supporters.
The website “MP War Crimes” which rates MPs on their stance on Palestine based on their voting record has determined Mahmood is “clearly anti-Palestinian.”
She has also spoken about the importance of both Israeli and Palestinian security. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Nick Roinson in February 2024, she said that “A one-state solution does not make the people of Israel safe, it actually condemns them to insecurity and concerns for their safety in perpetuity, and it is an outrage to adopt a position that says the people of Israel can have self-determination but the people of Palestine cannot.”
Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday: “We congratulate the new Home Secretary on her appointment and hope that the Jewish community will have an opportunity to disabuse her of some of the false information that has been circulating regarding Israel.”
Mahmood’s additional stances
She has been met with criticism for some of her other stances, including her opposition to assisted dying and her belief in biological sex being something that cannot be changed.
“As a Muslim, I have an unshakeable belief in the sanctity and value of human life,” she said in relation to 2024’s assisted dying bill. “I don’t think death is a service that the state should be offering.”
In relation to biological gender, Mahmood said: “I believe in the importance of recognizing biological sex; it’s immutable and it’s fundamental to how the vast majority of women understand their existence on this Earth.”
“You want to be inclusive… but you do have to recognize sex segregation has a place not just for safety, but for the dignity of women as well.”
Additionally, various Indian outlets have accused Mahmood of being anti-Indian. Mahmood – who is Kashmiri Pakistani – has called Kashmir, “India-occupied.”
Islamic org with Muslim Brotherhood ties
ANOTHER CRITICISM of Mahmood is that an Islamic organization with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood has its headquarters in her constituency.
Islamic Relief – the HQ of which is in Birmingham’s Digbeth area – was designated a terrorist organization in the UAE in 2014 over alleged Muslim Brotherhood links. The charity was banned in Israel and the West Bank in June 2014, with then-defense minister Moshe Yaalon claiming that it was “one of the sources of Hamas’s funding and a means for raising funds from various countries in the world.”
While Islamic Relief is not proscribed in the UK, the Charity Commission has been encouraged to investigate it over its ties to terror groups and its antisemitic and violent rhetoric.
Islamic Relief paid for Mahmood’s “humanitarian” trip to Pakistan in 2010.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post