Labour to overhaul ‘overly generous’ migrant pull factor as two major changes to be made to asylum rules

As part of the proposals, automatic family reunion rights will be ceased and requirements for long-term settlement in the UK will be altered.

The Prime Minister is announcing the reforms ahead of his attendance at the European Political Community Summit in Copenhagen, where he will co-chair a roundtable with leaders on innovative approaches to tackling illegal migration.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “I believe that if you want to come to the UK, you should contribute to our society. That is the tolerant and fair approach to migration that our communities are built on, but the current system is not fit for purpose.

“That is why we’re making fundamental changes to what those granted asylum are afforded in the UK. Settlement must be earned by contributing to our country, not by paying a people smuggler to cross the channel in a boat.

“The UK will continue to play its role in welcoming genuine refugees fleeing persecution. But we must also address the pull factors driving dangerous and illegal small boats crossings.

“There will be no golden ticket to settling in the UK, people will have to earn it.”

|

GETTY

Under the new proposals, “genuine refugees” will not be returned to their home country and will be entitled to a package of core protection should they receive a positive decision.

However, they will face a new, longer route to settlement requiring them to contribute, replacing the current five years, and they will not have the automatic right to family reunion.

Full details of the reforms will be set out in an Asylum Policy Statement set to be unveiled later in the Autumn.

A Government source told GB News: “We are acknowledging that there are people who are ‘asylum shopping’ across the continent, looking for the country that offers them the most.

“We have been criticised in this country for being too generous, creating a pull factor.

“Today, the Government is showing that we get it, that we have been overly generous, and that we will reduce the pull factors that see thousands attempting small boat crossings.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

The announcement comes just days before the Conservatives launch their own plan to stop the boats at their party conference this coming weekend.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce her party will support withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) after a review she commissioned recommended it.

Ms Badenoch is expected to lay out the proposals across her two speeches at the party conference to end inter-party divisions over the convention.

A new paper from Policy Exchange published today, backed by Michael Gove, details the Conservative failures to reform the UK’s relationship with the ECHR, as well as the Human Rights Act.

|

PA

Former Justice Secretary Lord Michael Gove writes in the Preface report: “The paper is a painstaking review of the series of attempts undertaken by successive Conservative governments, in which I served to place reform of our human rights framework on a proper footing.

“I agree with the authors that if any future programme of reform is to be effective, it must learn the lessons of 2010-2024, when the Conservative Party never quite made up its mind about what the problem was, how best to address it, or how much boldness was required.

“This paper is the latest publication of Policy Exchange’s remarkable Judicial Power Project, which for ten years now has been leading the public debate about the constitutional role of the courts and the place of law in our politics.”

Former Minister of Justice Lord Faulks KC added: “What is becoming increasingly clear is that the HRA and our membership of the ECHR is seriously inhibiting the Government’s freedom to respond to what is regarded by many as the ’emergency’ of illegal migration.

“This is the current issue, but there will be others as long as we retain the current legal architecture for the protection of human rights.”