UK politics live: Labour slams ‘open borders’ Tory party as net migration quadrupled under their watch

Nigel Farage has been introduced at his London press conference as the most patriotic political leader in the UK.

The Reform UK leader is living up to the claim, with Union Jack socks.

Labour said the latest migration figures showed the government had started the “hard graft” of tackling the issue, and accused the Conservatives of being the “open borders party”

A spokesperson for the party said: “In their own words, the Tories broke the immigration system. On their watch, net migration quadrupled in four years to a record high of nearly one million, despite saying they’d lower it to 100,000.

“They are an open borders party who lied time and again to the public. This is the chaos Labour inherited and any crowing from the Tories should be seen in that light.

“Over the summer, the Government started the hard graft. We hired more caseworkers to tackle the asylum backlog and we’re now interviewing 10,000 people per month, compared to 2,000 under the Tories, so we can get people out of asylum hotels and save the taxpayers billions.

“We’ve also ramped up the removal of those with no right to be in the UK by a fifth. Without this action, thousands more would remain in the UK illegally.

“Labour is getting on with cleaning up the Conservatives’ mess. Our new Border Security Command is working with our European partners to smash the criminal gang networks driving small boat crossings.”

Another homelessness record has been set with today’s new statistics on children living in temporary accommodation.

There are now 159,380 homeless children living in temporary accommodation – a 15 per cent increase in a year and the highest figure since records began in 2004.

The number of households living in temporary accommodation, such as hotels and B&Bs, has also hit a record 123,100 – up 16 per cent on last year.

There are 9,550 families with children stuck in B&Bs and hostels, according to government figures out today.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Year after year, we’re seeing the devastating toll the housing emergency is taking on families and communities with more than 159,000 children being subjected to the trauma of homelessness.”

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The number of asylum seekers who have been evicted from Home Office hotels and are made homeless has continued to increase.

In the year 2023/24, 13,520 asylum seekers were made homeless this way – up from 3,850 the year before, according to new government statistics published today.

This will partly be driven by an increased speed in processing the asylum claims backlog leading to more decisions being made.

Once an asylum seeker is refused asylum or successful in their claim, they are moved on from Home Office hotels – often dependent on local councils to help them from becoming homeless.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has said the government faces tough choices on immigration and further cuts to numbers could cause recruitment issues in social care.

Responding to the migration statistics, Marley Morris, IPPR associate director for migration, trade and communities, said:  “Net migration is coming down from record highs as the previous government’s policies start to bite. We expect a further substantial fall in the next set of figures.

“But revisions to earlier estimates mean that last year’s peak in net migration is even higher than previously thought, at just over 900,000.

“The new government faces a tough set of choices on immigration. Further cuts to numbers could be challenging for recruitment in key sectors such as social care, as well as university finances. It will need a clear framework to work through these choices and manage the potential impacts.”

Tory former home secretary Suella Braverman is the latest conservative politician to take credit for a fall in net migration.

Another former home secretary, James Cleverly, and new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch have already said changes in policy when they were in government led to the fall in net migration.

Mrs Braverman said: “A 20% drop in immigration since June 2023 is a result of the changes I fought for and introduced in May 2023 as home secretary.

“That’s when we started to turn the tide.

“But 1.2 million arrivals a year is still too high. This is unsustainable and why we need radical change.”

In the past year there has been a 19 per cent drop in the number of people given sanctuary in the UK on humanitarian routes, largely due to the reduction in visas granted on the Ukraine schemes.

New Home Office data shows that both the Ukrainian visa scheme, and the scheme for Hongkongers, have seen a substantial drop in grants of sanctuary to the UK. Ukraine scheme visa grants have dropped 53 per cent from September 2023 to September 2024, going from 62,946 to 29,507 grants each year.

For the Hong Kong scheme, there has been a 23 per cent drop from around 40,000 to just over 30,000.The Afghan resettlement schemes and the family reunion route have however seen large increases.

The number of grants for the Afghan schemes is up 735 per cent year-on-year; from 1,083 grants up to September 2023 to 9,048 grants up to September 2024.

Family reunion visa grants, which allow people granted asylum in the UK to bring their close family to safety, are up 230 per cent year-on-year. This accounts for an increase of over 13,000 grants.

A big jump in the processing of asylum claims is obvious in the data published by the Home Office this morning.

The number of people who have received initial decisions on their asylum claims in the year ending September 2024 was 102,305 – almost double the number made in the previous year due to an increased number of decision makers and greater productivity.

The success of asylum claims is going down, with only 52 per cent of initial decisions being grants of asylum. This is compared to 75 per cent in the previous year.

Former home secretary James Cleverly has taken credit for today’s fall in net migration.

Writing on X, he said: “Today’s migration figures are the first to show the impact of the changes that I brought in as Home Secretary.

“Numbers are still too high, but we see the first significant downward trend in years. Changes that Labour opposed and haven’t fully implemented.”

In a speech on immigration yesterday, Kemi Badenoch said: Tomorrow, immigration figures will be released that should show a drop in net migration. This is because of the changes we made in the last year of the Conservative government.”