Immigration

Immigration, policing, counter terrorism. Famously the toughest brief in government: every Home Secretary will tell you so, often.

The Ministry of Defence eventually overturned 884 refusals involving former members of Afghan specialist units who had worked alongside British forces, after a review found that earlier decisions had been made without properly using records held by the UK government. A Defence Committee report found serious administrative failings and said the high reversal rate meant the original decisions could not be regarded as reliable.

The Home Office is considering three former military sites capable of accommodating around 3,750 asylum seekers between them. Two could remain in use for at least ten years. It is planning that expansion while still developing the performance regime for the large asylum sites it already operates. Five months after promising revised KPIs by February 2026, border security minister Alex Norris told MPs in July that a dedicated framework for Wethersfield and Crowborough was still being developed.

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice spent around £4.9 billion on the asylum system in 2024/25. A Public Accounts Committee report published in June found that the Home Office still cannot say with confidence how many failed asylum seekers remain in Britain. It knew where "some" were, but could not establish with certainty who had left the country and who was still here.

The latest comparable police figures show race hate crime up 6 per cent in a year. The Royal College of Nursing says reported racial abuse or discrimination involving nursing staff increased by 78 per cent between 2022 and 2025. Over roughly the same period, British Social Attitudes recorded a substantial fall in the proportion of people who thought migration was good for the economy or enriched British culture.