People granted asylum will no longer be given “the golden ticket” of resettlement and family reunion rights, Keir Starmer said, amid deepening concerns from charities that his words are demonising refugees.
As the prime minister prepared to discuss illegal migration with European leaders, No 10 outlined plans to strip successful claimants of the right to automatically invite spouses and children to join them.
The right to permanently settle in the UK will be bestowed upon those who prove to be contributing to society, he said, “not by paying a people-smuggler to cross the Channel in a boat”.
Under current rules, successful asylum seekers have the right to invite family members to join them and settle in the UK.
The new policies are meant to ensure that people who have been granted asylum will receive less protection than they currently receive, a government source said.
“There are people who are ‘asylum shopping’ across the continent, looking for the country that offers them the most,” the source said.
“We have been criticised in this country for being too generous – creating a pull factor. We will reduce the pull factors.”
The policies are a riposte to Reform’s plans announced last week to strip the status of indefinite leave to remain [ILR] from hundreds of thousands of non-EU citizens who already have it and to force them to reapply for visas under stricter criteria.
Starmer is under intense pressure from within his own party to fight back against the growing electoral threat of Nigel Farage’s party.
In advance of the European Political Community (EPC) summit on Thursday, where leaders will discuss how to tackle illegal migration, Starmer said: “We’re making fundamental changes to what those granted asylum are afforded in the UK.
“Settlement must be earned by contributing to our country, not by paying a people-smuggler to cross the Channel in a boat.
“The UK will continue to play its role in welcoming genuine refugees fleeing persecution. But we must also address the pull factors driving dangerous and illegal small-boat crossings. There will be no golden ticket to settling in the UK, people will have to earn it.”
In September, the government suspended the family reunion route that allowed people with recognised refugee status or humanitarian protection to sponsor close relatives to join them. The route, which admitted spouses or partners and dependent children under 18, granted 4,671 family reunion visas in the year ending June 2025.
Starmer’s comments follow the announcement by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, on Monday that the government will impose new requirements on those seeking ILR to settle in the UK.
Mahmood said those seeking to settle permanently, most of whom come to the UK through regular routes, will face requirements of a higher standard of English, proof that they have contributed to society, and will be excluded if they have a criminal record.
Ministers will also examine whether to impose similar requirements upon those given asylum, sources said.
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Organisations that represent refugees said the plans were “unworkable” and “straight from a populist playbook”, which ministers have recently condemned.
Jon Featonby, the chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, said: “The previous government tried and failed to put people off taking risky journeys by reducing the rights of refugees once they were in the UK, restricting both family reunion and settlement. This approach didn’t work then and there is no evidence to suggest it will work now.
“Restricting family reunion only pushes more desperate people into the arms of smugglers in an effort to reunite with loved ones … family reunion overwhelmingly supported women and children – who made up nine out of 10 visas granted through this route in the last year.”
Kolbassia Haoussou, a director at the charity Freedom from Torture and a refugee, said: “The men, women and children who come to the UK seeking sanctuary – just as I did – want nothing more than safety and the chance to rebuild their lives as part of strong and vibrant communities.
“Blocking our chance to settle or to reunite with family members still at risk of harm keeps people like us and our children on the outside, never really allowed to feel secure or like we truly belong.
“These measures are taken straight from the populist playbook the government itself has condemned.”
On Wednesday, Starmer said he would look at how international law is being interpreted by British courts in an effort to tackle small boats, which he labelled “Farage boats” because of their increase in number since Brexit.
Before leaving the EU, the UK was a signatory to the Dublin convention, which states that asylum seekers can be returned to the first member state they arrived in before their claims are considered.
Starmer told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while “those genuinely fleeing persecution should be afforded asylum”, countries were experiencing “mass migration in a way that we have not seen in previous years”.
