A routine immigration debate on British television turned incendiary when a Reform UK politician demanded to know why Pakistan was not on the Home Office’s new visa-penalty list.

Laila Cunningham then escalated the exchange with a series of remarks invoking “Pakistani rape gangs” and suggesting that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood would not “dare disturb” what she called Mahmood’s “political base.”

The exchange took place on BBC Newsnight last Monday (yesterday), during a discussion of the government’s proposal to pressure certain countries to accept the return of their citizens who arrive illegally on small boats. Mahmood had identified three states — Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — that could face restrictions if they refuse to cooperate on migrant returns. Th

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