Ministers are to announce a tightening of migration rules as the government tries to wrestle the asylum agenda back from Nigel Farage.
In a statement to parliament as MPs return to Westminster on Monday after the summer recess, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper will unveil more details of changes to refugee family reunion, first set out in the Immigration White Paper earlier this year, to bring “greater fairness and balance” into the system.
She will also pledge that the government’s overhaul of the “broken” asylum system will contribute to ending the use of asylum hotels, which sparked widespread protests over the summer and led to Reform extending their lead in the polls.
In an attempt to counteract Reform’s narrative that Labour has lost control of the small boats issue, Cooper will publish new figures showing how the government has tackled people smugglers over the past year.
She will claim that the Government’s promise to “smash the gangs” behind English Channel crossings are showing results in stopping people arriving in the first place, with the lowest number of August boat crossings since 2019.
The Home Office said that the National Crime Agency, working with the new Border Security Command, led 347 disruptions of immigration crime networks – its highest level on record and a 40 per cent increase on the previous 12 months.
Organised crime disrupted
This included 56 of the highest-impact disruptions, leading, according to the NCA’s official assessment, to “a significant and long-term impact on the capability of the organised crime group.”
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 this 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 was 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.
Labour is under increasing pressure over the small boats issue, including from its own MPs. In July, the number of migrants to have crossed the Channel since the party took power in July 2024 reached 50,000.
The issue of migration has dominated the summer recess, with protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers. Nigel Farage has held weekly press conferences and attracted widespread publicity for his plan to deport 600,000 migrants over five years, if he was elected.
This has helped boost Reform to a 15 point lead over Labour in a BMG poll for The i Paper published on Friday.
The Home Secretary will also set out further details of planned changes to refugee family reunion, to bring the UK’s approach more in line with other countries in Europe and relieve pressure on local authorities where homelessness applications linked to this route have risen in recent years.
Nigel Farage poses in front of a mock departures board during one of his weekly press conferences which have seen him dominate the summer agenda (AP Photo/Joanna Chan)Cooper, who is herself under pressure over the issue, 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”.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp dismissed Cooper’s announcement as a “desperate distraction tactic”.
He added: “The simple fact is this year so far has been the worst in history with 28,000 illegal immigrants crossing the channel – 47 per cent up year on year.
“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.
“Labour is boasting about NCA disruptions – but the NCA’s own data shows a 16 per cent fall in the year to April compared with the last year under the Conservatives. Labour’s claim to have smashed the gangs is completely discredited. The truth is that Labour has lost control of our borders, and is engulfed in a fully-fledged borders crisis.”
Leaving ECHR ‘won’t risk Northern Ireland peace’
Meanwhile, a think tank has said that claims that the UK cannot withdraw from the ECHR because of commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement are “entirely groundless”.
The paper from Policy Exchange stated that public debate about human rights law reform has been “distorted” by the repeated assertion that withdrawal from the ECHR would breach the historic peace agreement.
In a speech last week to launch his party’s plans to tackle illegal migration, Farage said the Good Friday Agreement could be “renegotiated” to remove references to the convention.
Policy Exchange said “nothing in the UK’s commitments to the peace process in Northern Ireland requires it to remain a part of the ECHR”.
People protest near The Bell Hotel in Epping after the Court of Appeal overturned an order to empty it of asylum seekers. Image: Reuters/Jack TaylorThe paper states: “The British-Irish Agreement does not refer to the ECHR at all and none of its terms suggest in any way that the UK or Ireland were undertaking to remain member states of the ECHR in perpetuity.”
square POLITICS Big Read'Whatever the barriers are, remove them' - Labour MPs urge action on small boats
Read More
The document received the endorsement of former Labour home secretary and foreign secretary Jack Straw, who said: “I am not persuaded that the UK needs to withdraw from the ECHR, the better to deal with the unacceptable number of unlawful and unfounded asylum seekers.
“Rather, I believe that we should de-couple our own human rights legislation from the convention (as other European countries have done)…”
Naomi Smith, chief executive of Best for Britain, a campaign group which lobbies for closer ties with the EU, rejected the think tank’s findings.
She said: “In 30 pages, the Good Friday Agreement cites the ECHR seven times as an essential safeguard.”
Hence then, the article about cooper reveals tighter migration rules to wrestle asylum agenda from farage was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Cooper reveals tighter migration rules to wrestle asylum agenda from Farage )
Also on site :
- The 2025 Billboard K-Pop Artist 100
- ‘It’s all because of Putin’: RT drops Christmas song spoof (AI VIDEO)
- Steal a Brainrot cancels this week's Taco Tuesday for special Christmas event