Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to her article in The Sun on 22 October 2025, on what evidential basis she said that the UK was the destination of choice for refugees.

When this Government came to office, we inherited an immigration system in chaos. Organised criminal gangs wreaked havoc on our borders and we are still living with the consequences.

Migrants come to the UK as they believe this country is more generous compared to other safe European countries – they continue their journey looking for the best place to become a refugee.

Under the previous government, migrants were entitled to generous benefits including automatic family reunion rights, hotel accommodation and false promises that they will be able to work and earn a living, making the UK a more attractive place to seek refuge.

We have taken rapid action to address that chaos by introducing a fundamental change to the rights provided to those granted asylum in the UK, looking to end automatic family reunion rights and altering the requirements for long-term settlement in the UK. This approach balances protection against persecution with control of our borders. It makes the system fairer, in line with our European allies, and reduces incentives for asylum seekers to travel illegally to the UK.

We will also end the use of hotels for asylum accommodation and explore replacing them with more appropriate sites like military bases. In the summer of 2023 over 400 asylum hotels were open, costing almost £9 million a day; we have taken action to close hotels, with less than 210 now open, saving £1 billion in hotel costs last year.

We have invested £5 million into Immigration Enforcement, to target, arrest, detain and return illegal workers in takeaways, fast food drivers, beauty salons and car washes. The number of arrests for illegal working has risen by 63% since October 2024 and as part of this crackdown we have expanded right to work checks to the gig economy, removing the incentive for people attempting to enter the UK illegally.

We are taking on the hard graft to remove the pull factors and have introduced tougher language requirements to support migrant integration. We recently introduced a new law in Parliament where migrants will be required to pass tough English language requirements and must meet an A level equivalent standard in speaking, listening, reading and writing.

We have removed more than 35,000 people who were here illegally and struck a historic deal with the French meaning those who arrive by small boat are now being sent back.

Our Border Security Asylum and Immigration Bill will tackle pull factors that bring people to the UK illegally, equipping officers with the necessary powers to tackle organised immigration crime and those who attempt to enter the UK illegally.