Home secretary Shabana Mahmood has detailed new reforms to the UK asylum system, including a means-tested scheme requiring asylum seekers to pay approximately £10,000 each for state-funded living costs or risk being denied settled status. Refugee charities have condemned the proposal as a tax on refugees fleeing war, torture, and famine.
Reforms and Reactions
The reforms, part of the immigration and asylum bill presented to MPs today, also aim to speed up safe and legal routes to claim asylum, such as employer sponsorship. This move is seen as an attempt to appease backbench critics, including former deputy leader Angela Rayner, and address the lack of such routes that has driven many to attempt dangerous Channel crossings.
Mahmood described her approach as a "moral mission," but charities and Labour peer Alf Dubs, who fled the Nazis as a child, have denounced the measures as "performative cruelty." Dubs called on Andy Burnham to scrap the plans if he becomes prime minister.
Political Context
Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future thinktank, noted that the bill serves partly as a "communication tool." He highlighted the "cross-pressure" from two contrasting election results: the May local elections showed Labour facing an existential threat, while the Makerfield byelection suggested winning over Reform voters is key. Mahmood's team argues Burnham knows she is right, given his campaign in Makerfield, which largely avoided immigration issues.
An escalating row between Mahmood and home office minister Mike Tapp further exposed tensions. Tapp published an article arguing migrant care workers should be excluded from plans to retrospectively change settlement timeframes, angering Mahmood. Workers' rights campaigners and unions have fiercely objected to the plans, which change rules for care workers mid-game.
Impact on Migrant Care Workers
Migrant care workers close to the five-year threshold for settled status expressed devastation over the plans. The government's proposals essentially alter the rules for people supporting the ailing care sector, drawing criticism from unions and campaigners.
Stopping the Boats
As of mid-June, 9,852 people crossed the Channel this year, a 40% decrease compared to the same period in 2025, reflecting a broader European trend due to tough EU external border policies. Katwala is skeptical that Mahmood's proposals alone will reduce crossings further, advocating for a combination of accessible legal routes and effective returns.
Katwala's report, based on a Biden-era policy that reduced US-Mexico illegal crossings by 81%, recommends scaling up the UK-France "one in, one out" agreement on cross-Channel migration. This model, he argues, could undermine smugglers and foster European cooperation to protect asylum principles.
Andy Burnham's Vision
Burnham, as Manchester mayor, has criticized the government's dispersal system for asylum seekers as "unfair and bad for communities." Katwala suggests Burnham could accelerate exiting hotels, commit to never using them again, and promote community sponsorship, aligning with his devolution agenda. Burnham's centrepiece should be a yearly parliamentary immigration plan addressing budget, benefits, impacts, and numbers, moving beyond the current siloed approach.
Katwala emphasizes the need to localize and personalize migration stories, as seen in Fishguard's community sponsorship of Syrian refugees, to counter online misinformation and polarized debate. He believes Burnham can set the agenda more effectively than Keir Starmer, who was always responding to others.
