In Detail, In Brief: Labour is repairing the broken immigration and asylum system

Under the previous government, the immigration and asylum system was on the verge of collapse with the rate of decisions falling by more than 70% in the six months before last July’s General Election. This failure increased the backlog in the system and necessitated the continued use of asylum hotels, as well as causing untold stress for those people waiting for decisions on their asylum applications.

The Labour Government has spent the summer and autumn reversing that damage.

So far, the Government have:

• Increased asylum decision making by 52% in the last three months of 2024, which means those waiting for decisions are processed faster and more efficiently.

• Removed over 19,000 people from the country with no right to be here, including 2,900 foreign criminals.

  
  

We are also working to curb dangerous small boat crossings, both for the safety of those migrants taking that perilous journey and for the the integrity of our borders.

To that end, the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have set out how the Government will employ counter-terrorism tactics to smash the gangs and break their business model.

Tackling this issue will also require deepened cooperation with our French partners and I am pleased that Yvette Cooper became the first Home Secretary in 5 years to visit northern France.

Immigration plays an important role in our economy, but I believe that the system must be orderly and fair.

Net immigration under the Tories at one point exceeded 900,000 and this is clearly unsustainable: Labour’s manifesto committed to reducing net migration, pursuing the gangs responsible for small boat crossings and training people in the UK to ensure we are less dependent on migration for our economy in the first place.