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The Home Office is launching a fresh wave of immigration raids for illegal working and boasting of record numbers of deportations as Labour attempts to counter the growing political threat from Reform UK.
Ahead of the second reading of the new border security bill today, officials announced that both illegal working visits and arrests since Labour came to power had soared by about 38% compared with the previous 12 months.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is expected to join an early morning raid this week targeting illegal working, while the government will broadcast footage of deportations, a number of them involving foreign criminals, from detention to removal centres and on to waiting planes.
“The immigration rules must be respected and enforced. For far too long, employers have been able to take on and exploit illegal migrants and too many people have been able to arrive and work illegally with no enforcement action ever taken,” she said.
“Not only does this create a dangerous draw for people to risk their lives by crossing the Channel in a small boat, but it results in the abuse of vulnerable people, the immigration system and our economy.”
Downing Street is planning to go beyond simply taking the fight to Reform. “We don’t think it’s enough just to look strong on migration, we actually need to be strong. We’ve done really well on returns but people say they don’t believe it, that if it was true they’d see it on the news,” a source said.
The government believes its record on migration could help retain Labour voters tempted by Nigel Farage’s party. More than 16,400 failed asylum seekers, irregular immigrants and foreign criminals have been deported since the election, although more than half left the country voluntarily.
However, the approach is fuelling disquiet on the Labour benches with concerns the government could return to the “hostile environment” for irregular migrants fostered by Theresa May as home secretary, which resulted in “go home” billboards being driven around cities.
The Labour veteran Diane Abbott, a former shadow home secretary, told the Guardian: “Trying to present ourselves as Reform-lite is a big mistake. All you do is give legitimacy to their agenda and encourage people to vote for the real thing.
“A lot of the clamour is from new MPs with constituencies in the red wall, who have Reform very close behind and so are a bit panicky. They think the way to fend them off is to sound like them. But it will just alienate Labour voters in our core seats.”
The government’s renewed crackdown on those working in the UK without the legal right to do so has resulted in the biggest January for enforcement activity in more than five years, officials said.
There has been a 38% rise in visits to workplaces where people are working illegally and arrests in the last six months, compared with the same period 12 months before, according to the Home Office, although it did not provide a breakdown of the figures.
Officials said that raids were up 48%, with enforcement teams descending on premises including nail bars, convenience stores, restaurants and car washes, and a 73% surge in arrests in January, up from 352 the previous year to 609. The next wave of raids will focus on larger employers.
Eddy Montgomery, a director of enforcement at the Home Office, said: “I hope it sends a strong signal that there is no hiding place from the law, and we will continue to ramp up our activity to ensure those involved face the full consequences.”
Government sources said that many of those who come to the UK and end up working illegally are “sold false promises” about their ability to live and work in the UK, then risk their lives by crossing on a small boat.
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However, there is little evidence that significant numbers of small boat arrivals are being trafficked to work. The Tory former home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman both claimed that most people who came on small boats were economic migrants but were unable to back this up.
Analysis by the Refugee Council in February 2024 found that most people crossing the Channel in small boats were refugees. Between 2018 and September 2023, 93% of small boat arrivals claimed asylum, with up to three-quarters granted it and more who were initially refused winning their cases on appeal.
Some government insiders were alarmed when Farage’s party took the lead last week with pollsters YouGov for the first time, with one in five who voted Conservative at the last general election now saying they’d vote for Reform.
Labour has launched a series of adverts with Reform-style branding and messaging as the party seeks to combat the rise of the rightwing party, with Facebook adverts including boasts about how many people have been deported.
Some sources played down a direct link to the threat of Reform, arguing the fresh push instead showed they were delivering on an election promise to remove more people who have no legal status in the UK. Extra resources were available after the Rwanda scheme was scrapped.
“The Home Office has been working on this for quite a long time. I don’t think it is a direct reaction to that, but I think it’s really important that we’re able to show what we are doing as a Labour government,” one said.
While some in the party are queasy about tough action on immigration, Starmer warned ministers at a six-hour cabinet “away day” at Lancaster House on Friday: “Progressive liberals have been too relaxed about not listening to people about the impact of it.”
Reform came second in 98 seats, of which 89 were won by Labour, at the last election and there is concern among some Labour MPs, particularly across the so-called red wall and in the south, that Farage’s party could take dozens more next time unless the government gets a grip on the issue.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, announced her first fully fledged policy last week on migration – to double the length of time new arrivals have to be in the UK before they can apply for indefinite leave – amid concern over the threat posed by Reform to her party.
