Migrants will enter Britain more quickly despite Labour’s new asylum reforms, the Conservatives have claimed.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has announced plans for a fast-track appeals system to reduce long delays in asylum cases, arguing that it will speed up deportations and ease pressure on the asylum system.
For Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the reforms would have the opposite effect, with judges still using human rights laws to block removals. He warned the new tribunals would simply deliver faster rulings that allow migrants to stay.
“These tweaks go nowhere near far enough,” he said. “The Government is too weak to do what’s really needed repeal the Human Rights Act for immigration and deport illegal immigrants immediately on arrival.”
Labour under pressure
The reforms come amid growing pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to take a tougher stance on migration. Lord Blunkett, Labour’s former home secretary, has urged ministers to consider a temporary suspension of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the UN Refugee Convention, describing the situation as toxic and at risk of spiralling out of control.
Ms Cooper defended the plans, insisting the current system is completely unacceptable, with around 51,000 appeals pending and cases taking a year on average. She said delays were leaving failed asylum seekers in the country for years, driving up costs and prolonging the use of hotels.
“We are determined to substantially reduce the number of people in the asylum system,” she said. “Already we’ve cut the backlog of initial decisions by 24 per cent and increased returns of failed applicants by 30 per cent.
But the appeals system must be fixed if we’re to restore control.”
Under the new scheme, asylum appeals will be given a 24-week deadline in an attempt to prevent foreign offenders and failed applicants from remaining in the UK indefinitely.
Official figures this month showed 111,000 people applied for asylum in the UK in the year to June 2025 – the highest since records began in 2001. While the backlog of initial decisions has fallen to just over 90,000, more than 32,000 asylum seekers are still being housed in hotels. Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels by 2029.
A YouGov poll by the media found that 71 per cent of voters think the Prime Minister is handling the asylum hotel issue badly, including over half of Labour supporters.
Immigration and asylum were rated as the most important issue facing the country, ahead of the economy and the NHS.
Protests and counter-demonstrations over asylum hotels erupted in towns and cities last weekend. In Bristol, mounted police clashed with protesters and a woman was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
Read also: Starmer: Labour has deported record number of migrants by scrapping Rwanda scheme
