Labour to 'crack down on international students claiming asylum' after huge local election losses to Reform
3 May 2025, 20:51 | Updated: 3 May 2025, 23:23
The government will target international students applying for asylum in the UK in a bid to slash migration figures, a report has claimed.
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An immigration white paper outlining the proposed changes later this month will include measures to slash the numbers of UK student visa holders who claim asylum, according to The Guardian.
Labour is reportedly finalising the proposals this month as it scrambles to cut down on legal migration to Britain - with a pledge to cut net migration included in its election manifesto last summer.
Data published in March by the Home Office showed that 16,000 of the 108,000 people who claimed asylum in the UK in 2024 held a student visa.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has argued the figures suggest the UK's visa system is being abused by people claiming they can support themselves financially when they apply to come to Britain, before claiming asylum when their their visa runs out.
Ministers are also reportedly looking at ways to make it more harder for international students to remain in the UK by taking up low-paid jobs.
The measures are likely to draw backlash from universities, who receive vast amounts of their income from international student's fees. It may well receive some resistance too from the Department for Education, sparking a possible Labour civil war.
It comes after Labour suffered a string of humiliating defeats to Reform UK in the local elections this week, including a by-election.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has hailed the results as "the end of two-party politics" and "the death of the Conservative Party" as Reform picked up ten councils and more than 600 seats in Thursday's poll.
Speaking to LBC, Farage said the country has "lost faith" in Labour and pointed to the increase in channel crossings as a key reason for their defeat.
Speaking directly to Sir Keir Starmer, Farage said: “I would just say to him, very simply, that people who put trust in you, that is eroded, albeit almost eradicated, in a very short space of time."
Some Labour MPs have urged Labour to take a tougher stance on migration to claw back Reform voters.
Jo White, MP for Bassetlaw in the north of England, said the government need to stop “pussyfooting around” and “take a leaf out of President Trump’s book”.
But others have called on the prime minister to take a different approach.
Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, told LBC's Natasha Devon that it would be "unforgivable" not to adapt after the elections, which saw Labour lose 180 council seats and the Runcorn and Helsby by-election.
Mr Byrne, who is on the left of the party, said Sir Keir Starmer's pledge after the results to go "further and faster" on Labour's current trajectories was "tin-eared".
"I think if you don't take on board what's happened over this week, then you're doing the Labour Party and the country a disservice," he said.
Mr Byrne said the government had made some good achievements, but they had been "drowned out" by controversial decisions such as the winter fuel allowance cut.
"That's caused seething anger," he said.
Backbench MP Emma Lewell, who has represented South Shields since 2013, said it was “tone deaf to keep repeating we will move further and faster on our plan for change.
“What is needed is a change of plan.”
Brian Leishman, the newly elected MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, said: “The first 10 months haven’t been good enough or what the people want and if we don’t improve people’s living standards, then the next government will be an extreme right-wing one.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.
