UK Immigration and Deportation Policies
Factual summary of published positions as of 2025. All parties and movements presented impartially, sourced from official party documents and parliamentary records.Immigration has become one of the most contested areas of UK politics. Net migration peaked at an estimated 906,000 in the year ending December 2023 before falling to approximately 728,000 in the year ending June 2024. The number of small boat arrivals totalled over 167,000 since 2018, with only 6,313 (4%) returned. The annual asylum backlog peaked at over 175,000 unresolved cases. Against this backdrop, the main parties and movements have adopted sharply divergent approaches - from expanding safe and legal routes to abolishing the asylum system entirely.
| Policy Area | ■ Labour Government |
■ Conservative Opposition |
■ Reform UK Party (Farage) |
■ Restore Britain Movement (R. Lowe MP) |
■ Lib Dems 72 seats |
■ Greens 4 seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net migration target | No specific number target. White Paper (May 2025) aims to reduce through higher salary thresholds and tighter rules. | Below 100,000 per year (Sunak pledge; not achieved while in office). | End illegal immigration entirely. Legal migration controlled in "the national interest." | End illegal immigration entirely. Legal migration not the primary focus of the August 2025 paper, which addresses the illegal population only. | No cap. Focus on faster processing and safe routes to reduce pressure. | No target. Support managed and humane migration policy. |
| Small boats / illegal entry | Border Security Command (£75m/year). Negotiating "backstop" returns to France. Increased enforcement raids (7x increase in 2024). | Illegal Migration Act 2023 (duty to detain and remove). Rwanda scheme - cost £715m, zero transfers made before Labour scrapped it (July 2024). | Push-back at sea. Detain all new arrivals. Immediate returns. Lifetime re-entry ban for all deported illegals. | Immediate detention and deportation within 24 hours - to country of origin or designated safe third country. Automatic rejection of all claims (asylum system effectively abolished). Public information campaign in origin countries and northern France. | Faster processing in France. More safe and legal routes to reduce incentive for dangerous crossings. | Abolish push-back schemes. Expand safe and legal routes as primary mechanism. |
| Asylum system | Clear existing backlog. Faster decisions (target: months not years). "One-stop" appeals process. | Abolish current tribunal system. Offshore processing (Rwanda model). Duty to detain and remove. | End the current asylum system. UN Refugee Convention disapplied in domestic law for five years. Third-country processing. | Effectively abolished: claims only valid if arriving directly from a bordering unsafe country (France, Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Iceland are all classed safe, so zero qualifying claims expected). Retrospectively revoke all 56,605 asylum grants made to small boat arrivals since 2018. | Independent caseworkers. Six-month decision target. End hotels; dispersal housing only. | End detention. Community-based support. No offshore processing or third-country schemes. |
| Deportations / removals | Increased enforcement raids. No specific removal volume target published. | Pledged £1.6bn annual "Removals Force" targeting up to 150,000 removals per year (October 2025 policy). | 150,000+ forced removals per year. Operation Restoring Justice (August 2025). | 150,000-200,000 forced removals per year plus mass voluntary departures via hostile environment. Total 1.8-2m illegal immigrants removed within approximately 2 years 5 months to 3 years. 15,000-bed detention estate on former RAF bases. 600 charter flights per year. | Remove those with no right to remain via proper legal process. No headline target set. | Deportation only after full individual legal process. Oppose charter deportation flights. |
| ECHR / Human Rights Act | Remain in ECHR. No change to the Human Rights Act. | Divided. Sunak threatened departure; official policy remains reform rather than withdrawal. | Leave the ECHR. Repeal the Human Rights Act. UN Refugee Convention disapplied for five years. | Leave the ECHR (Article 58 denunciation). Repeal the HRA. Retain a narrow list of ECHR case law relevant only to Northern Ireland (Articles 9 and 14 on religion and non-discrimination). "Great Clarification Act" enabling Parliament to override any judicial decision by simple majority in real time. Repeal the Equality Act 2010. | Stay in ECHR. Strengthen the Human Rights Act. | Stay in ECHR. Strengthen rights protections across the board. |
| Legal migration / Skilled Workers | White Paper: raise Skilled Worker salary threshold to £38,700; tighter English language; 10-year settlement pathway for most routes. | Annual cap on overseas workers. Higher salary requirements. Tighter rules on student dependants. | Visas only for roles with a demonstrated unmet domestic need. Higher compliance standards. | Primary paper focused exclusively on the illegal population. Detailed position on legal migration routes not published as of August 2025. | No major restrictions on legal skilled workers. Invest in domestic training to reduce reliance on overseas workers. | Maintain broad access for skilled workers. Prioritise domestic workforce development. |
| International students | White Paper: potential cap on overseas student numbers; further restriction on student dependants. | Ban on student dependants (implemented January 2024). Possible cap on new overseas student visa applications. | Significant reduction. Prevent the student route being used as a general migration pathway. | Not addressed in August 2025 paper. Focus is on illegal immigration, not the student visa route. | No cap on international students. Oppose restrictions on legitimate academic migration. | Open access for international students. |
| Foreign National Offenders | Maintain automatic deportation regime. Increase removal of FNOs from prisons. | Automatic deportation for all FNOs. Faster removal from prisons. | Mandatory immediate deportation on sentence completion. No exceptions. | Mandatory immediate deportation on sentence completion. No exceptions. FNOs represent 57% of current deportations; programme would scale significantly. | Full legal process before deportation. Review of automatic deportation rules. | Deportation only after full individual case assessment. Full appeal rights maintained. |
| Rights and support while in the UK | Right to work after 6 months waiting. Maintained asylum support rates (£49.18/week). | No right to work. Minimal support contingent on cooperation with removal. | No right to work. No hotel accommodation. Bare-minimum support only. Criminal prosecution for illegal entry. | No right to work. Bare-minimum support contingent on cooperation with removal. No hotel accommodation - government land and detention only. "Safe surgery" GP scheme dismantled. NHS access restricted to those with legal status. Secondary healthcare requires upfront payment. | Right to work from day one of application. Maintained support. Community integration programmes. | Full right to work. Support equivalent to that available to UK citizens in need. End all hostile environment policies. |
| International diplomacy | Returns agreements with key origin countries. Border co-operation with France. | Bilateral returns agreements. Trade leverage on uncooperative countries. | Visa sanctions on countries refusing returns (based on US s.243d Immigration and Nationality Act model). Aid conditionality. | "Deportation NATO" - proposed coalition of Western nations applying coordinated escalating pressure: public designation, harmonised visa sanctions, aid suspension, trade tariffs, remittance taxes, mobility restrictions on elites. Collective lifetime re-entry bans across all member states. Third-country processing agreements (Rwanda model revised). | Diplomacy and development aid as a route to reducing migration pressure at source. | Address root causes of migration through aid, conflict resolution, and climate action rather than deterrence. |
Labour - Current Government (from July 2024)
The Labour government elected in July 2024 under Keir Starmer immediately scrapped the Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which had cost £715 million without a single transfer being made. It established the Border Security Command with a budget of approximately £75 million per year, focused on disrupting smuggling networks upstream before arrivals reach the UK.
The Government published an Immigration White Paper in May 2025 setting out the most significant reform to the legal migration system in over a decade. Key measures included raising the Skilled Worker salary threshold to £38,700, requiring higher English language proficiency across more visa routes, and extending the standard settlement pathway from five to ten years. Net migration fell from a peak of 906,000 (year ending December 2023) to approximately 728,000 (year ending June 2024), with further falls anticipated from White Paper measures.
On small boats, the Government increased the number of Immigration Enforcement raids sevenfold compared to the last full year of the previous administration. A negotiated arrangement with France on returning Channel arrivals remained under discussion as of mid-2025. Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary, announced an accelerated processing programme to clear the legacy asylum backlog, which peaked at over 175,000 unresolved cases.
Conservative Party - Official Opposition (from July 2024)
In government until July 2024, the Conservatives introduced the Rwanda scheme and the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which created a duty to detain and remove anyone arriving in the UK illegally. The Rwanda scheme was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court in November 2023; subsequent emergency legislation passed but Labour scrapped it before any transfer took place.
In opposition, the Conservatives under Robert Jenrick (Shadow Home Secretary from November 2024) moved to a harder position, including proposals to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and to establish a £1.6 billion annual "Removals Force" targeting up to 150,000 removals per year. This was presented as Conservative party policy in October 2025.
During the Rishi Sunak administration (2022-2024), net migration rose from approximately 500,000 to a peak of 906,000, substantially driven by policy decisions on student dependants, care workers and humanitarian visa schemes taken between 2020 and 2022 (see Policy Timeline).
Reform UK - Political Party
Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, won five seats in the July 2024 general election with 14.3% of the vote - the third-highest share of any party. The party's immigration policy centres on ending illegal immigration entirely: leaving the ECHR, repealing the Human Rights Act, disapplying the UN Refugee Convention in domestic law for five years, detaining all small boat arrivals pending removal, and deporting everyone with no legal right to remain.
In August 2025, Reform UK published Operation Restoring Justice, setting out detailed enforcement proposals including 150,000+ forced removals per year, mandatory lifetime re-entry bans for all deported illegal immigrants, and visa sanctions against countries that refuse to accept returns - modelled on the US Immigration and Nationality Act s.243(d) mechanism used by the Trump administration.
Reform UK holds five parliamentary seats: Nigel Farage (Clacton), Richard Tice (Boston and Skegness), Lee Anderson (Ashfield), Rupert Lowe (Great Yarmouth - subsequently left to found Restore Britain), and Andrew Parker (Fylde).
Restore Britain - Cross-Party Movement
Restore Britain was founded in June 2025 by Rupert Lowe MP after he left Reform UK. It describes itself as a cross-party movement rather than a political party. In August 2025, Restore Britain published Mass Deportations: Legitimacy, Legality, and Logistics, co-authored with Harrison Pitt, setting out what the authors describe as the most comprehensive mass deportation plan ever published in the UK.
The plan differs from Reform UK's in several notable respects. On the ECHR, Restore Britain proposes full withdrawal and repeal of the HRA but would retain a narrow list of approximately a dozen ECHR cases relevant specifically to the Northern Ireland peace process, in contrast to Reform UK's simpler disapplication approach. On the asylum system, Restore Britain goes further than Reform UK by proposing the retrospective revocation of all 56,605 asylum grants made to small boat arrivals since 2018. On domestic law reform, Restore Britain proposes the Repeal of the Equality Act 2010 alongside a "Great Clarification Act" enabling Parliament to override any judicial decision by simple majority - a mechanism not proposed by Reform UK.
On international diplomacy, Restore Britain proposes a "Deportation NATO" - a formal coalition of Western nations applying coordinated, escalating collective pressure on countries that refuse to accept the return of their nationals, including collective lifetime entry bans, remittance taxes and coordinated trade tariffs. The paper estimates the full programme would cost £49-58 billion over five years but would save at least £12.5 billion per year in reduced public service costs.
Find Out Now polling commissioned by Restore Britain in September 2025 found 62.9% of respondents supported deporting all those living in the UK illegally, with 19.2% opposed and 17.8% don't know.
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats, who won 72 seats in the July 2024 election, have opposed each successive toughening of the asylum and migration regime. Their core position is that faster and fairer processing of asylum claims - with a target of six months from claim to decision - would reduce the backlog and associated costs more effectively than offshore deterrence schemes.
The party supports a right to work for asylum seekers from the point of application, opposes the use of hotels and detention centres as accommodation, and advocates greater use of community dispersal housing. They oppose leaving the ECHR and would strengthen the Human Rights Act. On legal migration, they have not proposed significant new restrictions, preferring to invest in domestic training to reduce employer reliance on overseas workers.
Green Party
The Greens, who won four seats in July 2024, hold the most open position on migration of any party with parliamentary representation. They support the abolition of immigration detention, oppose all deportation charter flights, and advocate for safe and legal routes as the primary mechanism for managing asylum claims.
The Green Party would grant asylum seekers the right to work and to full welfare support equivalent to that available to UK citizens in need. They oppose any form of offshore processing and would not set a net migration target. Their position is that migration is primarily driven by global inequality, conflict and climate change, and that the policy response should address root causes rather than restrict entry or increase enforcement.
Where the Data Stands
Across all parties and movements, the debate is shaped by the same underlying data. Net migration of 728,000+ per year (as of mid-2024) represents roughly 1.1% of the UK population annually. The asylum backlog peaked at over 175,000 unresolved cases. Immigration Enforcement conducted approximately 9,000 illegal working visits in 2024, resulting in around 6,400 arrests. Only 8,164 enforced removals were made in 2024 - a 62% fall from the 21,435 in 2004. Of the 167,000+ small boat arrivals since 2018, just 6,313 (4%) have been returned.
The legal infrastructure for deportation is constrained by domestic statute and international obligations including the Human Rights Act, the Refugee Convention as reflected in UK law, and common law principles. The Not Deported page explains the main legal mechanisms that block individual removals. The Policy Timeline explains the policy decisions behind the sharp rise in net migration since 2020.
Sources: Home Office Immigration Statistics (quarterly); House of Commons Library; official party manifestos and published policy documents; Reform UK Operation Restoring Justice (August 2025); Restore Britain Mass Deportations (August 2025); UK Immigration White Paper (May 2025).