Yvette Cooper will crack down on asylum seekers bringing family members to the UK when their claims are accepted, the Home Office has said.
The home secretary will tighten the eligibility for those bringing family members by raising the necessary English language standards and the amount of money they must have.
Ms Cooper is vowing to overhaul the “broken” asylum system in a bid to end the use of asylum hotels for migrants who cross the Channel on small boats.
Speaking in the Commons as MPs return to Westminster after recess on Monday, she will also highlight record success in tackling people smugglers after the government endured a summer dominated by criticism over the small boats crisis and asylum hotels.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper is vowing to overhaul the ‘broken’ asylum system (PA Wire) The home secretary will set out planned changes to the refugee family reunion process to give “greater fairness and balance”.
And she will claim that the government’s promise to “smash the gangs” behind English Channel crossings is showing results in stopping people arriving in the first place.
She will say the National Crime Agency (NCA) led 347 disruptions of immigration crime networks in 2024/25 – the highest level on record and a 40 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.
That included 56 of the highest-impact disruptions, while NCA-backed efforts in Europe have squeezed the supply of boats and engines destined for the French coast, with 45 dinghies seized in operations at the Bulgarian border in July and August.
Officials believe that contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in the month of August since 2019, with 55 making the crossing, according to the latest figures.
The 3,567 arrivals in August were the lowest since 2021, but the 29,003 across the whole of 2025 so far is the highest on record for this point in a year.
Ms Cooper will say actions to strengthen border security, increase returns and overhaul the asylum system are “putting much stronger foundations in place so we can fix the chaos we inherited and end costly asylum hotels”.
Protests continued across the country over the weekend, including in Epping (PA Wire) She will say: “That means ensuring we have the powers we need to pursue the criminal smuggling gangs profiting from small boat crossings that other parties have voted against, but also new firm rules in place to manage the asylum system so we can close hotels.”
In a message to Reform UK, which has promised mass deportations, and the Tories, who want to revive the Rwanda scheme, she will say: “These are complex challenges and they require sustainable and workable solutions, not fantasy promises which can’t be delivered.”
She will say the UK has a “proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution” but the system “needs to be properly controlled and managed, so the rules are respected and enforced, and so governments, not criminal gangs, decide who comes to the UK”.
She will set out measures announced over the summer, including the detention of the first migrants under the “one in, one out” deal with France – with the first deportations back across the Channel due to take place in the coming weeks.
Ms Cooper will also update MPs on reforms to the asylum appeals process, which are intended to reduce the backlog and ease the pressure on accommodation.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed Ms Cooper’s intervention as a “desperate distraction tactic”. He said: “The simple fact is this year so far has been the worst in history with 29,000 illegal immigrants crossing the channel.”
Mr Philp added: “Labour’s first year in office also saw the number of illegal immigrants in asylum hotels go up, despite having fallen by half in the nine months before the election. Labour’s first year also saw the highest number of asylum claims in history.”
He said the government had “lost control” and was “engulfed in a fully fledged borders crisis”.
Also on Monday, the Court of Appeal will hand down its full written judgment in the Bell Hotel case. The government and the hotel’s owner last week succeeded in overturning an interim injunction which would have required asylum seekers to be removed from the site.
Epping Forest District Council, which applied for the injunction, is considering taking the case to the Supreme Court.
Protests continued in Epping on Sunday night, with police arresting three people. Around 200 demonstrators gathered outside the council building on Sunday evening, where a woman climbed the steps and unfurled a Union flag.