Yvette Cooper is set to announce a crackdown on migrants bringing family members into Britain.
The Home Secretary will use a Commons statement this afternoon to try to seize back the initiative on migration after record small-boat arrivals this year and a growing public backlash over asylum hotels.
She will signal a major shake-up that will restrict when refugees can bring over their families, require them to have sufficient funds before they can do so and set tougher English language requirements. She will claim the reforms will give “greater fairness and balance” to the system.
It follows a five-fold increase in the number of refugees’ family members granted visas to come to the UK, from 4,300 in 2023 to 20,600 in the year to this March, adding to a migrant housing crisis that has provoked nationwide protests.
It comes as MPs return to Westminster for the first time since July after a summer that has seen Nigel Farage’s Reform UK consolidate its lead in the polls.
