Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is preparing sweeping reforms to the asylum appeals process in a bid to speed up deportations, reduce Britain’s reliance on migrant hotels, and head off mounting public unrest over immigration policy. The proposals, reported by The Times UK, would see tribunal judges gradually stripped of their role in asylum cases and replaced with a new fast-track commission of adjudicators tasked with delivering swifter rulings.
Under the plan, appeals by failed asylum seekers would no longer go before the First-tier Tribunal, where judges have frequently overturned Home Office decisions on human rights grounds, particularly under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the right to family life. Instead, a statutory commission will be established to prioritise cases involving asylum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels and foreign offenders subject to deportation orders. Ministers believe this change will cut the average appeal time — currently more than a year — and allow faster removals from the UK.
The reforms come against a backdrop of growing protests in British cities including Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Wakefield and Aberdeen, where demonstrators opposed to the use of hotels for migrants clashed with police, leading to at least 15 arrests. The crisis has intensified following a High Court injunction forcing the Home Office to relocate more than 100 asylum seekers from a hotel in Epping, Essex. The ruling has emboldened other local councils to pursue similar legal challenges, raising fears within government that the asylum system could be thrown into further disarray.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has pledged to tighten judicial guidance and expand the number of tribunal sitting days, but she acknowledged these measures are no longer sufficient. “We are determined to substantially reduce the number of people in the asylum system as part of our plan to end asylum hotels,” she said. Cooper pointed to early progress since Labour came to power, with a 24 per cent reduction in the backlog of initial asylum decisions and a 30 per cent increase in failed asylum returns. “But we cannot carry on with these completely unacceptable delays in appeals as a result of the system we have inherited,” she added.
The scale of the challenge is daunting. A record 111,000 asylum applications were filed in the year to June, while more than 51,000 appeals remain unresolved — up sevenfold since 2022. With asylum seekers entitled to accommodation while awaiting outcomes, more than 32,000 people are currently housed in over 200 hotels across the UK at a cost of £5.4 billion in the last financial year. Ministers say that unless the appeal process is overhauled, this burden will continue to grow, fuelling both public anger and the rise of anti-immigration parties such as Reform UK.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform, has already pledged to launch five deportation flights per day if he becomes prime minister, while Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has urged local councillors to explore legal routes to block new asylum hotels in their areas. Labour, acutely aware of the electoral risks, has promised to phase out hotel use by 2029, backed by a £500 million fund to help councils buy student accommodation, disused offices and other housing stock to provide cheaper alternatives.
Yet the removal of judicial oversight from asylum appeals is expected to spark fierce criticism from human rights groups, legal advocates and the left wing of Labour. Critics warn it risks undermining the rights of genuine refugees and accelerating deportations without proper scrutiny. The Refugee Council will this week argue for a different approach, recommending that asylum seekers who are highly likely to have their claims approved should be granted temporary status, easing pressure on the system and allowing them to work and rebuild their lives while their cases are finalised.
For Starmer, the reforms mark a pivotal moment. By prioritising speed and efficiency over judicial process, his government hopes to show voters it can restore order to Britain’s asylum system and reduce tensions in communities where hotels have become flashpoints. But as The Times UK highlighted, the political gamble is clear: while Labour seeks to neutralise immigration as a weapon for its populist rivals, it risks being accused of eroding refugee protections in the name of expediency.
