New figures reveal Labour’s asylum meltdown - Conservatives
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New figures reveal Labour's asylum meltdown More crossings, more
grants, more hotel use, fewer returns, and long-term pressures
rising across housing, welfare, and public services.Labour's asylum
disaster is on full display. Labour do not have the backbone to
tackle the illegal immigration crisis, and their recently announced
asylum and returns policy does not go far enough Only the
Conservative Party has recognised the scale of the...Request free trial
New figures reveal Labour's asylum meltdown
Today [Thursday 27th November 2025] figures have once again exposed the extent of Labour's immigration failure in the starkest possible terms. Staggeringly, the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has risen to 36,273, up from 29,585 at the election. Dispersal accommodation has also climbed to 66,232. A complete mockery of Labour's promise to close all asylum hotels, married with permanent resettlement in communities. Returns are stuck at rock bottom. Labour simply can't or won't remove people. In the last quarter, only 3.2 per cent of small boat arrivals were returned, that means 97 per cent of people arriving illegally remain in Britain. In fact, the number of small boat arrivals deported has actually gone down to 446 in the most recent quarter, when 14,105 arrived. If people are not being returned, how can we ever begin to deter crossings. Under a Conservative Government, every illegal entrant would be removed within a week. More than 133,000 initial decisions were issued this year, with 58,000 grants handed out, a 45 per cent grant rate meaning almost half of all claimants are being waved through, putting huge pressure to housing, schools, and public services. The system is also shifting long-term pressures onto services. Employment among refugees granted asylum averages just 48 per cent after two years, far below the national rate, while median annual earnings for asylum refugees reach only £13,000 after eight years. Nearly half rely on social housing. This is not sustainable for public services already under strain. More crossings, more grants, more hotel use, fewer returns, and long-term pressures rising across housing, welfare, and public services. Labour's asylum disaster is on full display. Shabana Mahmood has spent her first few months insisting she has a plan, but today's data shows the opposite. Labour have lost control of asylum claims, lost control of hotel use, lost control of returns, and lost control of the border itself. And the measures Shabana Mahmood announced will make the situation worse. Labour's so-called plan to clear the backlog is nothing more than waving claims through and pushing people into HMOs across the country at taxpayers' expense. Instead of deterrence, they are creating new safe-and-legal routes, expanding family pathways for Gaza students and their dependants. Even worse, the proposal to force illegal immigrants to wait 20 years for citizenship simply confirms Labour do not expect to remove illegal arrivals at all. If you plan to deport people, you do not design a 20-year timetable for their future rights. And Labour's fantasy about rewriting Article 8 or renegotiating Article 3 with forty-five other nations is deluded. As Lord Wolfson has made clear, these constraints cannot be fixed from within. That is why the Conservatives have committed to leaving the ECHR so we can finally enforce our own laws and remove illegal entrants within a week of arrival. Only the Conservative Party has recognised the scale of the problem and done the hard work in opposition to develop a serious and credible plan to tackle immigration through our BORDERS Plan. This plan is underpinned by 7 key policies:
Together, these measures will restore control, protect public safety, and close the loopholes that allow people to enter legally only to claim asylum later. Only the Conservatives have a plan to fix Britain's broken borders and put the British people back in control. Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “Today's figures blow apart every claim Labour have made about getting control. More grants, more claims, more hotels, almost no removals of small boat immigrants. This is an asylum system in freefall under a Labour government that is too weak to get a grip. “Only the Conservative Party have done the hard work to develop a detailed and proper plan to restore control. We will leave ECHR and execute our BORDERS plan. Keir Starmer doesn't have the backbone to do this and doesn't have the plan to make it happen. Under new leadership, only the Conservatives will deliver stronger borders for this country.” ENDS Notes to Editors:
Asylum accommodation
Small boat returns
(Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 27 November 2025, link).
o The grant rate in the year ending September 2025 was 45 per cent. This is lower than the 52 per cent in the year ending September 2024 (Home Office, Accredited Official Statistics, 27 November 2025, link).
Enforced returns
The Conservative Party believes that if we are to completely end illegal immigration, we need a comprehensive plan that removes every illegal arrival swiftly and straightforwardly – this is the BORDERS plan:
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