Reform UK says Government taking British public “for mugs” over Asylum policy

Oliver Dean | 5th March 2026 | Politics

Almost half of the British public are concerned with the levels of Channel Crossings (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

After the Government announced it would clamp down on the number of migrants receiving asylum support, Reform UK's Zia Yusuf hits back - claiming that it is merely window dressing.

The government is set to impose stricter conditions on migrants receiving asylum support, the Home Office announced on Wednesday. However, the move has drawn immediate fire from Reform UK, who dismissed it as window dressing.

The policy shift comes amid intense public pressure over asylum accommodation costs. The Home Office spent £4bn on asylum support in 2024/25, including £2.1bn on hotel accommodation – a figure equivalent to £5.77m per day. Ministers have framed the tougher conditions as part of a broader effort to restore order to the asylum system, but critics on the right argue the measures fall short of meaningful deterrence.

The announcement lands against a backdrop of deep and growing public unease. The latest Ipsos polling shows immigration remains the biggest issue facing the country, with 48% of Britons naming it as important. This is on top of the fact that two in five say that Labour is doing a worse job of managing immigration than the previous Conservative government. Some 62% of respondents believe the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has increased.

The scale of hotel use has proved a particular flashpoint. At the end of Q1 2020, only 5% of asylum seekers were in contingency accommodation, but by March 2025 almost a third were staying in such facilities. A petition calling on the government to stop financial support for asylum seekers, on the grounds …

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