Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood claimed the UK was targeted by people “asylum shopping” around Europe as she faced the prospect of a backbench revolt to plans to toughen up the system.
She announced sweeping changes designed to reduce the UK’s attractiveness to asylum seekers and bolster the process for removing people with no right to be in the country.
The plans, set out in a Government statement, have already faced resistance from Labour MPs.
But Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the asylum system was not designed to cope with a “more volatile and insecure” world or a situation where asylum seekers travel through “multiple safe countries before seeking to cross the English Channel by boat”.
He said: “If we want to see fewer channel crossings, less exploitation and a fairer system with safe and legal routes, we need an approach with a stronger deterrent effect and rules that are robustly enforced.”
The Home Secretary said the UK was viewed by asylum seekers as a more attractive destination than other European nations.
She said: “While some are genuine refugees, others are economic migrants, seeking to take advantage of the asylum system. Even amongst those who are genuine refugees, economic incentives are at play.
“Instead of stopping at the first safe country even genuine refugees are searching for the most attractive place to seek refuge, many now ‘asylum shop’ their way across the continent, in search of the most attractive place to seek refuge.”
The plans have already sparked opposition from backbench MPs.
Kent MP and former immigration lawyer Tony Vaughan said ministers’ rhetoric “encourages the same culture of divisiveness that sees racism and abuse growing in our communities”.
Mr Vaughan warned plans to review refugees’ status every few years would divert “huge amounts of resource away from making our asylum system work”.
And referencing Sir Keir’s speech at the Labour Party conference, he said: “The Prime Minister said in September that we are at a fork in the road.
“These asylum proposals suggest we have taken the wrong turning.”
Other backbenchers expressed support for Mr Vaughan’s comments, with one telling the PA news agency the Government’s policy was “incoherent” and saw communities “pitted against each other”.
Another told PA that “performative cruelty” would undermine efforts to both solve problems in the immigration system and improve Labour’s polling position, adding that Monday’s announcement was unlikely to help MPs show loyalty at a difficult time for the Government.
And while others were more receptive to “difficult discussions” about how to improve border security, they said ministers lacked the “moral authority” to do so and attacked the proposals as a “visionless shambles”.
