Home secretary pledges to get tough in crime fight

Shabana Mahmood said she used to keep a cricket bat behind the till of her parent's corner shop

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to be "tough" in her new role and unafraid to make the difficult decisions.

In a wide-ranging speech at the Labour conference in Liverpool, the MP for Birmingham Ladywood told of her priorities and also spoke of growing up in the Small Heath area where her parents ran a shop.

"I know what it feels like to keep a cricket bat behind the counter just in case," she said.

She told attendees there was "nothing low-level" about shop lifting, and after the speech told the BBC policing and dealing with knife crime were among issues which "mattered to local communities".

In her speech to the conference, a main national issue was migration, with Mahmood outlining a series of new conditions migrants have to meet to qualify for indefinite leave to remain.

Migrants will have to prove they are contributing to society to earn the right to remain in the UK, the home secretary said.

The 45-year-old, who has been the Birmingham Ladywood MP since 2010, also gave details of her background and admitted her new role, which she began on 5 September, was unexpected.

"If I am honest, it is an honour I never expected and is one that would have been unthinkable to my parents when they first arrived here in the 1970s."

She said: "I am a rare home secretary, perhaps the only one whose first job was behind a till in my parent's corner shop."

Mahmood added: "I know better than most that when we get tough and tackle crime like [shop lifting] we bring communities together."

Shabana Mahmood said becoming home secretary had been an "unexpected honour"

Speaking to BBC Midlands Today, she also addressed the national phenomenon which has seen people fly the St George's flag and union jack, which started in her home city.

"I love our flags. I love the St George's flag, I love the union jack, I love our civic flag for Birmingham - those mean something to me," Mahmood said.

"I see myself reflected in all of those flags; Birmingham, England and Britain.

"This is my identity and I'm not going to let any pound shop racists take my identity away from me - that flag represents all of us, it is actually a symbol of our unity and must not be used for division."

She was also asked about families of the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings who have been calling for a public inquiry and pledged to look into the matter.

"I know that this is one of the decisions that I will be looking at very soon, what I will assure those families is that I absolutely hear their case ...they still want answers after all these years."

She said she would look at the "best mechanism for us as a government" to help the families get those answers based on the arrangements it has.