“Radical” reforms to Britain’s system for asylum seekers are needed to ensure the UK’s border security, Yvette Cooper has said as she announced there will be new rules for refugees reuniting with family in Britain.
The Home Secretary unveiled reforms to the border security and asylum system on Monday afternoon as Parliament returned from its summer break.
She said Government's overhaul of the "broken" system will contribute to ending the use of migrant hotels, an issue which has led to widespread protests.
Current rules are "outdated" and "unfair", Ms Cooper said, adding: "We will shortly set out more radical reforms to modernise the asylum system and to boost our border security.
"The heart of these reforms will be a complete overhaul of the appeals system."
Ms Cooper told MPs that rules for refugees in the UK hoping to bring loved ones here from abroad “were designed many years ago to help families separated by war, conflict and persecution”.
She added: "In Denmark and Switzerland, those granted humanitarian protection are not able to apply to bring family for at least two years after protection has been granted.
"But here in the UK now, however, those applications come in on average around a month after protection has been granted."
A new independent body will be created to speed up asylum seeker appeals and help clear the backlog, Ms Cooper told the Commons.
It will be “fully independent of Government” and staffed by trained adjudicators”.
"We're also increasing detention and returns capacity, including a thousand-bed expansion at Campsfield and Haslar, with the first tranche of additional beds coming online within months to support many thousands more enforced removals each year,” Ms Cooper said.
The Government has promised to "smash the gangs" behind English Channel crossings. The National Crime Agency (NCA) led 347 disruptions of immigration crime networks in 2024/25 - the highest level on record and a 40% increase on the previous 12 months.
Officials believe that contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in the month of August since 2019.
The 3,567 arrivals last month 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 added that the first returns of those who come to the UK on small boats will begin "later this month", under Britain’s new “one in one out” deal with France.
Responding shadow home secretary Chris Philp says Ms Cooper did not mention "even a word" about the number of people crossing the Channel.
"I wonder why that was," he asks. "Things are not getting any better, they are getting worse. That is why there are protests across the country."
It comes as the Prime Minister said he is looking to speed up the closure of asylum hotels after a summer dominated by protests and criticism over the small boats crisis.
Labour has vowed to end the use of hotels for housing migrants by the next election. But on Monday Sir Keir Starmer said he has set the “challenge” of emptying them sooner.
He added that he "completely" gets public concerns about immigration, following recent demonstrations in Epping that resulted in the Home Office taking legal action to keep the Bell asylum hotel in the Essex town open.
“We have to have control of our borders, and I completely get it, and I'm determined that whether it's people crossing in the first place, whether it's people in asylum hotels, or whether it's returning people, we absolutely have to deal with this,” the PM told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"When it comes to the asylum hotels, I want them emptied. I've been really clear about that. I completely understand why people are so concerned about it."
Asked to commit to a date to empty asylum hotels, Sir Keir replied: "Well, we've said we'll get rid of them by the end of the Parliament. I would like to bring that forward, I think it is a good challenge. I want to bring that forward."
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister claimed Nigel Farage and his party Reform UK "feed on grievance", adding: "They don't want the problem solved because they've got no reason to exist if the problems solved."
Downing Street earlier on Monday insisted that ministers will not seek to leave a major human rights treaty to grapple with migration
Reform UK has called for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in order to tackle the migration crisis while the Conservatives are currently reviewing whether they should take the same approach.
Article eight of the agreement, the right to family life, has been used during court cases to justify illegal migrants remaining in Britain.
The Policy Exchange think tank has claimed that leaving the ECHR would not jeopardise peace in Northern Ireland, where it underpins the Good Friday Agreement.
But No 10 said the move was not under consideration, telling reporters: "The Government has been clear that Britain will remain a member of the ECHR and that shutting ourselves off from the international stage will make it harder, not easier, to return people, and you do not strike international agreements by tearing up international agreements."
