Yvette Cooper to suspend new refugee family reunion applications in asylum crackdown – live

Sir Keir Starmer wants to close asylum hotels “as quickly as possible”, his official spokesperson said, but declined to give a deadline.

Asked if there is a specific date, the spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister has spoken about this earlier in his interviews, talked about the fact that he wants to close these hotels as quickly as possible, and the way to do that is to work through the backlog.”

The Government has committed to emptying all hotels housing migrants by the end of the parliament, which could be as late as 2029.

The spokesperson added that Sir Keir “previously made a manifesto commitment to closing them all by the end of the parliament, he spoke about obviously wanting to do that as quickly as possible”.

Neil Hudson, the Conservative MP for Epping Forest, has urged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to close The Bell Hotel, saying the “community is in distress”.

Last week, the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court interim injunction against the hotel housing asylum seekers, after the Home Office challenged the decision.

There have been protests outside the hotel for months after one of its inhabitants, a male asylum seeker, was charged with sexually assaulting a teenager. He denies the charges.

“Our community is in distress. The situation is untenable,” Mr Hudson said.

“This week the schools are back. The hotel is in the wrong place, right near a school, and many concerned parents have contacted me.

“When will the home secretary and the government listen to us address this issue and do the right and safe thing and close The Bell Hotel immediately.”

Ms Cooper reiterated her earlier remarks that the hotel, like all asylum hotels, would close, but it would be done in an “orderly” way over time.

Changes announced by Yvette Cooper to the refugee family reunion route will “push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers”, a leading refugee charity has said.

Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, responded to the home secretary’s announcement, saying: “Until now, family reunion has been one of the only safe and legal routes available that allows refugees fleeing war and persecution to be reunited with their partner and children. It is only for immediate family of people who have already been through the process of being recognised as refugees and overwhelmingly supports women and children – who made up nine out of ten visas granted through this route in the last year.”

He added: “Far from stopping people taking dangerous journeys to cross the Channel, these changes will only push more desperate people into the arms of smugglers in an effort to reunite with loved ones.

“This is not who we are as a country – we should not be forcing children to grow up without their parents.

Family reunion is a lifeline. It enables refugees to rebuild their lives, integrate more quickly, and contribute to their communities.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government will use “legal and controlled support” to help people fleeing persecution.

She told the Commons: “We will continue to do our bit to support Ukraine, extending the Ukraine permission extension scheme by a further 24 months, with further details to be set out in due course.

“We’re also taking immediate action to rescue children who have been seriously injured in a horrendous onslaught on civilians in Gaza so they can get the health treatment they need.

“I can confirm that the Home Office has put in place systems to issue expedited visas with biometric checks conducted prior to arrival for children and their immediate accompanying family members.

“And we have done the same for all the Chevening scholars and are in the process of doing so now for the next group of students from Gaza who have been awarded fully funded scholarships and places at UK universities so they can start their studies in autumn this year.

“And later this year, we will set out plans to establish a permanent framework for refugee students to come study in the UK, so we can help more talented young people fleeing war and persecution to find a better future alongside capped and managed ways for refugees to work here in the UK.”

Yvette Cooper told MPs: “Let me turn next to the action we’re taking to ensure that every asylum hotel will be closed for good under this Government, not just by shifting individuals from hotels to other sites, but by driving down the numbers in supported accommodation overall.

“And not in a chaotic way through piecemeal court judgments, but through a controlled, managed and orderly programme, driving down inflow into the asylum system, clearing the appeals backlog, which is crucial, and continuing to increase returns.

“Within the asylum state, we are reconfiguring sites, increasing room sharing, tightening the test for accommodation, and working at pace to identify alternative, cheaper and more appropriate accommodation with other government departments and with local authorities.

“And we’re increasing standards and security and joint public safety co-operation between the police, accommodation providers and the Home Office to ensure that laws and rules are enforced.

“I understand and agree with local councils and communities who want the asylum hotels in their communities closed because we need to close all asylum hotels, and we need to do so for good, but that must be done in a controlled and orderly manner, and not through a return to the previous government’s chaos that led to the opening of hotels in the first place.”

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said that changes to the family reunion visa scheme is not enough to fix the current system.

He says the Tories believe that no one should be allowed to stay in the UK if they enter illegally, let alone bring additional family members into the country.

He told the Commons: “This is not just a border security crisis, it is a public safety crisis as well, and people up and down the country are furious. That is why they are protesting.

“If this Government were serious about fixing this problem, they would know that little tweaks here and there are not enough. Tweaks to Article 8 are not going to be enough.

“Tweaking the family reunion rules are not enough, returning maybe, if we are lucky, 50 people a week to France is not going to be enough.

“The only way these crossings will stop, the only way we’re going to get control of our borders back, is if everybody crossing the Channel knows they will get returned.”

He said the last Conservative government had a plan to tackle migrants coming over with the Rwanda Bill, and Article 8 of the Human Rights Act needed to be disapplied in immigration matters.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has claimed the migrant situation in the UK is getting “worse, not better”.

“Things are not getting any better, they are getting worse,” he told the Commons.