Home secretary Yvette Cooper to set out border security and asylum reforms

The home secretary will outline reforms to the border security and asylum system, after a summer dominated by criticism over the small boats crisis and hotel housing.

Yvette Cooper will also highlight record success in tackling people smugglers, as MPs return to Westminster for the first time since July.

She will say the Government’s overhaul of the “broken” asylum system will contribute to ending the use of asylum hotels, an issue which has led to widespread protests over the summer.

Cooper will also set out planned changes to the refugee family reunion process, to give “greater fairness and balance”.

The BBC has reported that she plans to tighten rules for migrants granted asylum to bring their families to the UK, including tougher English language standards and access to sufficient funds.

The shadow home secretary dismissed the potential changes as a “tiny tweak” and said the Government was in “complete denial”.

“I’m afraid the truth is this is a tiny tweak that will make very little difference,” shadow home secretary Chris Philp told BBC Breakfast.

He said the Government was “in complete denial” about the scale of the “borders crisis”.

He said: “To be quite honest, people who cross the channel illegally shouldn’t be able to bring any family members over here at all.

“In fact, if the Government was serious about fixing this issue, what they would be doing is making sure that everybody who arrives illegally is immediately removed.”

Asked why the Conservatives did not restrict people’s ability to bring family to the UK when in power, he pointed to the now-scrapped Rwanda plan, which he said would have seen “every single illegal immigrant crossing the Channel immediately removed to Rwanda”.

Labour minister Stephen Morgan has said the Government wants to reform the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) to bring down immigration.

“We’re really clear that we inherited an asylum system in chaos and we want to bring order to that system, and fairness and balance.

“So Yvette Cooper will set out details later today, but we want to see reform in the ECHR, we think that’s really important to bring down the levels of migration that we’ve seen coming into our country,” Morgan told GB News.

The Government said earlier this year that it would seek to reduce the number of people claiming “exceptional circumstances” over the right to family life in order to remain in the UK under Article 8 of the ECHR, the right to private and family life.

It said in its immigration white paper that Parliament would set out a tighter framework for judges to follow when ruling on such cases.

On Monday, the home secretary will claim that the Government’s promise to “smash the gangs” behind English Channel crossings are showing results in stopping people arriving in the first place.

She will say the National Crime Agency (NCA) led 347 disruptions of immigration crime networks in 2024/25 – the highest level on record and a 40% increase on the previous 12 months.

That included 56 of the highest-impact disruptions, while NCA-backed efforts in Europe have squeezed the supply of boats and engines destined for the French coast, with 45 dinghies seized in operations at the Bulgarian border in July and August.

Officials believe that contributed to the lowest number of boats crossing the Channel in the month of August since 2019, with 55 making the crossing, according to the latest figures.

The 3,567 arrivals in August were the lowest since 2021, but the 29,003 across the whole of 2025 so far is the highest on record for this point in a year.

Cooper will say action to strengthen border security, increase returns and overhaul the asylum system are “putting much stronger foundations in place so we can fix the chaos we inherited and end costly asylum hotels”.

She will say: “That means ensuring we have the powers we need to pursue the criminal smuggling gangs profiting from small boat crossings that other parties have voted against, but also new firm rules in place to manage the asylum system so we can close hotels.”

In a message to Reform UK, which has promised mass deportations, and the Tories, who want to revive the Rwanda scheme, she will say: “These are complex challenges and they require sustainable and workable solutions, not fantasy promises which can’t be delivered.”

She will say the UK has a “proud record of giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution” but the system “needs to be properly controlled and managed, so the rules are respected and enforced, and so governments, not criminal gangs, decide who comes to the UK”.

She will set out measures announced over the summer, including the detention of the first migrants under the “one in, one out” deal with France – with the first deportations back across the Channel due to take place in the coming weeks.

Cooper will also update MPs on reforms to the asylum appeals process, which are intended to reduce the backlog and ease the pressure on accommodation.

Also on Monday, the Court of Appeal will hand down its full written judgment in the Bell Hotel case.

The Government and the hotel’s owner last week succeeded in overturning an interim injunction which would have required asylum seekers to be removed from the site.

Epping Forest District Council, which applied for the injunction, is considering taking the case to the Supreme Court.

Protests continued in Epping on Sunday, and police arrested three people.

About 200 demonstrators gathered outside the council building on Sunday, where a woman climbed the steps and unfurled a Union flag.