Latest news with #UKBorders
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Asylum hotels will be in use for years, borders watchdog warns – leaving Reeves' pledge in tatters
Rachel Reeves will fail to meet her flagship pledge to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029, the UK's borders watchdog has warned. David Bolt told a committee of peers there was not enough housing stock to deal with the number of people in the system – as he also questioned the government 's ability to achieve Keir Starmer 's promise to 'smash the gangs'. Ms Reeves has said her plan to end the use of hotels, by cutting the asylum backlog, hearing more appeal cases and returning people to their home countries, would save £1bn a year. Asked by members of the House of Lords what the challenges would be to achieve the chancellor 's aim, Mr Bolt replied: 'I don't think it will be achieved, frankly.' He said: 'The numbers within asylum system (are) not very tractable, they're very large numbers and it's very hard to see how they're going to be reduced significantly even over the length of Parliament.' He added despite the Home Office appearing to be going in a different direction with getting more local authorities engaged in asylum housing: 'I think there's a more fundamental issue about accommodation, or at least housing stock, there simply isn't sufficient housing stock to be able to deal with the sorts of numbers in the system. 'I think it's really, really challenging.' Mr Bolt, who previously served borders watchdog between 2015 and 2021, and returned as interim chief inspector in June last year, also told peers he wrote to ministers to say he 'wasn't convinced smashing the gangs was the right way of thinking about things' in tackling Channel crossings. He said: 'It did seem to me the challenge was to change the risk reward ratio for those people involved in organised immigration crime, that's really a difficult thing to achieve, because it's relatively low cost, relatively low risk for the perpetrators and highly profitable. 'I'm not sure I feel very optimistic about the ability to smash the gangs and, in any event, it seems to me with organised crime, the best thing you can do is deflect it to something else you're less concerned about rather than expect to eradicate it.' But he also agreed more needed to be done to tackle the issue in the UK and look at what is attracting people to come to the country. Mr Bolt said: 'The availability of illegal working, that I think is one of the issues the Home Office has tried to focus on and tried to close down as best it can and will continue to have to work very hard on that.' It comes after shadow home secretary Chris Philp posted a message on X on Tuesday saying he made an unannounced visit to an asylum hotel last Friday and found 'clear evidence' of illegal working for Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats. A Downing Street spokesman said border security minister Dame Angela Eagle will meet food delivery companies next week, adding that the Government will not stand for the 'racket'. Home Office figures show just 299 migrants made the journey to the UK by crossing the English Channel in 2018. This year so far, more than 18,000 migrants have arrived via the Channel, in a record for this point in the year since data collection began in 2018. The highest year of total arrivals on record was 2022, at 45,774.
Sky News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Politics latest: Starmer 'absolutely determined' to 'retake control' of UK's borders
Sir Keir Starmer has travelled to Albania to announce an expanded crackdown on migrant smuggling gangs in the Balkans - a key staging post on the route to Britain. The PM has said he's "absolutely determined" to "retake control" of the UK's borders.
Telegraph
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Starmer crackdown will only cut migration to pre-Brexit levels
Net migration could be 250,000 a year even after Sir Keir Starmer's crackdown, the Government's chief migration adviser has said. The Prime Minister unveiled a white paper on Monday that will reduce the number of foreign workers and students coming to the UK by 98,000 a year, Home Office analysis suggests. Net migration – which stands at 720,000 – is forecast to fall to about 340,000 from 2028 as a result of measures that are already in place, according to the Office of National Statistics. Professor Brian Bell, the chairman of the migration advisory committee, suggested that Labour's plans could therefore reduce net migration to 'under 300,000 and probably closer to 250,000 in the next few years'. This would still be above the average of 200,000 in the 2010s and the pre-Brexit total of 224,000 in 2019 when Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, pledged to 'take back control of our borders' and reduce migration. It subsequently rocketed to a high of more than 900,000 in the year ending June 2023. Sir Keir has refused to set a cap on net migration, but Prof Bell said Labour's plans would result in a 60,000 to 70,000 cut to the figure when factors such as foreign workers and students remaining in the UK were taken into account. Releasing the white paper from Downing Street, Sir Keir echoed his predecessor's pledge by saying that Labour would 'take back control of our borders' with tougher rules on immigration. He warned that without them, the UK risked becoming an 'island of strangers'. Sir Keir described the record levels of immigration under the Tories as a 'squalid chapter' for politics as he promised to 'significantly' reduce net migration by the end of the Parliament. However, he said it was 'not sensible' to put a 'hard-edge cap' on it as previous prime ministers had done and failed to achieve. Reform UK and the Tories have pledged unspecified caps on net migration and on Monday the parties accused Labour of failing to go far enough in reducing immigration. Some Labour MPs also criticised Sir Keir's rhetoric. Nadia Whittome, the Labour MP for Nottingham East, said the 'step-up in anti-migrant rhetoric from the Government is shameful and dangerous', while Sarah Owen, the Labour chairman of the women and equalities select committee, said 'chasing the tail of the Right' could put the UK on 'a very dark path'. Under Labour's plans, foreign students will be allowed to stay in the UK for 18 months after their studies before having to get a skilled work visa, down from two years currently. Universities will also face a 6 per cent tax on their £12 billion income from foreign students. Employers could be barred from hiring foreign workers if they fail to train up domestic workers in their sectors. Migrant workers will only be able to come to the UK for graduate-level jobs, except in a very limited number of shortage occupations for temporary, time-limited periods. All migrants will be required to learn a higher standard of English, including adult dependents, as part of efforts to boost integration and cohesion in society. Automatic settlement and citizenship rights after five years will end and be extended to up to 10 years, although ministers refused to say on Monday if this would apply to migrants already in the UK. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said Labour's immigration plan was 'weak and ineffective'. 'It goes nothing like far enough to dramatically reduce immigration,' he said. He said the Tory party's proposed legally binding cap on net migration had to be 'properly worked through' before it was announced, but pledged it would be 'a lot, lot lower' than the current projections of 340,000. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, said there would still be 'massive loopholes' in the immigration system under Labour's reforms and that net migration would still run at 'many hundreds of thousands a year'. Interviewed on Sky News, he said he would allow some essential migration in areas with skill shortages but that numbers would be capped. Prof Bell said ministers were right to be 'sceptical' about predicting net migration as estimates could end up 100,000 higher or lower than the eventual figure. However, it was 'reasonable' to believe the measures could take net migration towards 250,000. He warned it would 'not be easy' to reduce migration significantly further as there were only four groups to target. Two – asylum seekers and family reunions – were 'really difficult' to reduce unless the Government changed its obligations under international treaties like the Refugee Convention. On work visas, he said the Government could go further by extending the restrictions on foreign worker recruitment to graduate professions such as civil engineers or accountants. Ministers could cut the time limit for graduates to below 18 months and only allow them to remain in the UK if they got a graduate-level job. Home Office sources said there would be further measures to reduce immigration including new workplace strategies to boost training and employment of UK workers. 'This is really important first step, but I wouldn't say this is the totality of the Government's efforts to reduce net migration,' they said.
Al Jazeera
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
UK Labour government toughens immigration plans as far right gains support
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer promises to 'finally take back control' of the United Kingdom's borders as his Labour government unveils policies designed to reduce legal immigration and fend off rising support for the hard right. 'Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,' he told reporters at a Downing Street news conference on Monday. Starmer announced he was ending an 'experiment in open borders' that saw net migration rise to nearly one million people under the previous Conservative government, which lost last year's general election. Labour has been traditionally more sympathetic to immigration than the Conservative Party. Starmer, a former human rights lawyer who voted for the UK to remain part of the European Union, is under renewed pressure to tackle the issue after the anti-immigration Reform UK party's gains in recent local elections. However, Starmer's shift to the right on immigration risks alienating Labour's large base of left-of-centre supporters and losing their votes to the Liberal Democrats and the Greens. The government's Immigration White Paper policy document includes plans to cut overseas care workers and increase from five to 10 years the length of time people will have to live in the UK before qualifying for settlement and citizenship. English-language rules would also be strengthened with all adult dependants required to demonstrate a basic understanding while the length of time students may stay in the UK after completing their studies would be reduced. The white paper also proposes new powers to deport foreigners who commit offences in the country. Currently, the government is only informed of foreign nationals who receive prison sentences while under the new arrangements all foreign nationals convicted of offences would be flagged for the government. The document also proposes new visa controls requiring foreign skilled workers to have a university degree to secure a job in the UK. The prime minister acknowledged that migrants 'make a massive contribution' to Britain but alleged the country risks becoming an 'island of strangers' without more controls. He added that he wants net migration to fall 'significantly' by the next election, likely in 2029, but refused to say by how much. Labour promised in its general election manifesto last year to significantly reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to June. It had peaked at 906,000 in 2023 after averaging 200,000 a year for most of the 2010s. Arch-eurosceptic Nigel Farage's Reform party won more than 670 local council seats this month as well as its first two mayoral posts. It is also riding high in national polls while Labour is struggling after its 2024 landslide general election victory.
Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
UK risks becoming ‘island of strangers' without migration cuts, Starmer warns
The prime minister pledged to 'take back control of our borders' with tougher rules on immigration and warned that without them the UK risked becoming an 'island of strangers'. Sir Keir Starmer described the record levels of immigration as a 'squalid chapter' for politics and the economy as he unveiled the most radical crackdown on migration since Brexit. He was speaking in a Downing Street press conference ahead of the publication of an immigration white paper that set out details of how the government intends to introduce restrictions across all forms of visas to the UK. Foreign students will only be allowed to stay in the UK for 18 months after their studies before having to get a skilled work visa, down from two years
