LABOUR ministers are reportedly planning on cracking down on international students applying for asylum in the UK after suffering huge losses to Reform in the English local elections.
White papers proposing measures to decrease the number of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims will be drafted for mid-May, the Guardian has reported.
The UK Government is reportedly finalising the proposals this month to reduce legal migration in the UK in what it says are abuses of the visa system.
The Home Office published figures in March which showed that of the 108,000 people who claimed asylum in the UK in 2024, 16,000 held a student visa.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper previously argued that the figures show the system is being abused by people saying they can support themselves financially when they apply to come to the UK, before claiming asylum at the end of their visa.
Labour pledged to cut net migration in its election manifesto last summer and Home Office sources told the Guardian their immigration policies have been in the works for months and are not a knee-jerk reaction to Reform’s surge.
Ministers are reportedly also looking at ways to make it more difficult for international students to stay in the UK by taking up low-paid jobs.
Some Labour MPs in the north of England have reportedly privately urged their party to take more action on migration following Reform’s growth in popularity.
Jo White, who represents Bassetlaw, said the UK Government should stop “pussyfooting around” and “take a leaf out of President Trump’s book”.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, White called for digital ID cards as a way of reducing immigration and for regional grooming gang inquiries along with panning her party’s decisions over the cut to winter fuel payments.
Keir Starmer wrote for the Times that he would not blame the local election results on the “same old excuses”.
He wrote: “I get it. Uncontrolled immigration, sewage in rivers, failing local services: I feel the same sharp edge of fury at the way our country has been let down as people who voted on Thursday night do.”
Labour left-wingers are also demanding a change of course from the party leadership after the poor result at the English local elections.
Online, Labour veteran Diane Abbott expressed her frustrations. “Labour leadership saying the party will go further and faster in the same direction,” she said.
“They don’t seem to understand that, it is our current direction that is the problem.”
Meanwhile, Mary Kelly Foy (below), the MP for Durham – which saw its historically Labour-run council go to Reform – said it wasn't too late for a different approach.
“The results in County Durham were completely avoidable, but what we've seen today is a direct result of the party leadership's political choices.”
