2 August 2025, 23:48
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper visiting the Bentley factory in Crewe, Cheshire, ahead of plans to slash the UK’s asylum backlog.
Picture:
Alamy
The Home Secretary has unveiled plans to introduce a fast-track scheme to tackle the asylum backlog, with the government aiming to turn around decisions within weeks.
The Home Secretary said Labour was planning a “major overhaul” of the appeal process in the hope it would help to make a significant dent in the numbers in plans revealed late on Saturday.
Ms Cooper revealed further plans to jail people smugglers using social media to promote their services as crowds of anti-immigration protesters clashed with counter protestors outside a hotel believed to house asylum seekers in London and Newcastle on Saturday.
In plans unveiled over the weekend, the government said the new proposals would mean anyone advertising Channel crossings or fake passports on social media could face up to five years behind bars.
“We need a major overhaul of the appeal [process] and that’s what we are going to do in the autumn…” Ms Cooper said.
“If we speed up the decision-making appeal system and also then keep increasing returns, we hope to be able to make quite a big reduction in the overall numbers in the asylum system, because that is the best way to actually restore order and control.”
People thought to be migrants scramble to board a small boat near Wimereux in France – it comes as new plans by the UK government to make people smuggling via social media a jailable offense.
Picture:
Alamy
Protests in London on Saturday outside a hotel believed to house asylum seekers saw protestors clash with police, leading to nine arrests.
It comes as the first migrants were led into the four-star Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf, east London, on Friday night under cover of darkness.
Ms Cooper’s comments, made to The Sunday Times, reveal the government’s aim of compressing the appeals process, meaning decisions and returns could happen “within weeks” – citing a source familiar with the plans.
The Government faces pressure to cut how many asylum seekers are housed in hotels while awaiting the outcome of a claim or appeal.
The Home Secretary has previously said she was eager to put a fast-track system for decisions and appeals in place so that people from countries considered safe would not sit in the asylum system for a long time.
Large police presence around the Thistle City Barbican Hotel as protesters clash with police.Pro-immigration protesters and rival anti-immigration protesters were kept separate outside the hotel that is being used to accommodate asylum seekers.
Picture:
Alamy
“We should be able to take those decisions really fast, be able to take those decisions, make sure that they go through the appeals system really fast and then also make sure they are returned really quickly as well,” she told the Home Affairs committee in June.
“That would mean a fast-track system alongside the main asylum system, I think that would be really important in terms of making sure that the system is fair.
“That will require legislation in order to be able to do that, as well as a new system design.”
The Government is also seeking to reduce the number of Channel crossings.
More than 25,000 migrants have arrived in small boats this year so far.
Yvette Cooper, Home Secretary, MP Pontefract Castleford and Knottingley. Ministers attend the government cabinet meeting in Downing Street, London, UK Credit: Imageplotter/Alamy Live News.
Picture:
Alamy
On Saturday, Yvette Cooper unveiled plans to create a new offence under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which is already going through Parliament.
The move could widen the Bill’s scope in a bid to tackle illegal entry to the UK – the latest crackdown attempt by the government
The offence would also outlaw the promise of illegal working being promoted online and could carry a large fine.
It comes as the Government grapples with a record number of migrants arriving in the UK after crossing the English Channel.
On Wednesday, arrivals passed more than 25,000 for the year so far, a record for this point in the year.
Signs on the beach of Dover call for the protection of…
Picture:
Getty
Tensions over asylum hotels have flared up in recent weeks, with a protest and counter-protest taking place on Saturday outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in north London, and also in Newcastle.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this Parliament.
Asylum seekers and their families are housed in temporary accommodation if they are waiting for the outcome of a claim or an appeal and have been assessed as not being able to support themselves independently.
They are housed in hotels if there is not enough space in accommodation provided by local authorities or other organisations.