Criminal migrants face being booted out of hotels and asylum accommodation in radical plan

Asylum seekers who commit crimes will be booted out of asylum accommodation and stripped of their cash handouts, under new plans.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood will revoke European laws to automatically provide arrivals with support.

From June, the handouts will become "conditional" and only given to those "who genuinely need it and follow the law".

Those who work in Britain's black economy will also be thrown out of hotels, houses, flats and bedsits funded by taxpayers, alongside foreign criminals and those refusing to leave the UK voluntarily.

Some 30,000 migrants could lose their support, officials predicted.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution.

"But taxpayers cannot be expected to fund the lives of those who exploit the system or break our laws.

"Asylum support and accommodation will now become conditional - reserved only to those who play by our rules."

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: "Labour should put foreign criminals on a plane home, not onto British streets.

"If Labour had a backbone and deported all illegal immigrants, there would not be the need for asylum accommodation. Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be deported anyway. Labour has deported only 6 per cent of illegal arrivals since coming to office, so rolling out another gimmick will not change a thing.

The Home Office will introduce the new legislation on Thursday, vowing the plans will "restore order and control to our borders".

Officials said 21,000 migrants could be granted the right to work because they have been waiting for more than 12 months for their asylum claim to be processed.

Another 9,000 were caught working illegally last year.

The new measures will come into force in June, officials said, amid widespread fury over Britain's £4bn asylum bill.

Some 107,003 people are being supported by taxpayers, including some 30,657 living in asylum accommodation.

But more asylum seekers are living in houses, flats and bedsits across the country, new Home Office figures revealed.

Some 68,538 are living in dispersal accommodation, up from 66,232 three months ago.

Labour wants to use more former military bases for asylum accommodation and convert former hospitals, student digs and office blocks into homes for migrants.

And they could pay councils to buy up homes across the country, which would then be leased out to asylum accommodation providers. Once the asylum crisis is over, they would form part of the housing stock.

Ms Mahmood, during a visit to Denmark, revealed migrants' right to permanent asylum will be scrapped.

Instead, they will be offered temporary status, which will be reviewed every 30 months.

If their country is deemed safe enough for them to return, they will be sent back. Only children who arrive in the UK unaccompanied will be exempt.

And, in a speech on Thursday, Ms Mahmood will declare her reforms will create a "firm but fair" asylum system.

She will add: "Providing sanctuary to those genuinely fleeing persecution while striking at the vile smuggling gangs and restoring order at the border. Ensuring the right to live in this country forever is there, for those who seek a better life which comes with responsibilities to contribute to our national life."

The Home Secretary will warn that failing to end the Channel migrant crisis will erode confidence in the state.

She said: "If we cannot deal with so visible a failure, what can the state achieve at all? It is our creed, as the Labour Party, that the state can and must be a force for good.

"Without the trust of citizens in the state, therefore, there is no space for Labour values - in any part of Government - to be realised.

"Restoring order and control at our border is not a betrayal of Labour values, it is an embodiment of them, and it is the necessary condition for a Labour Government to achieve anything it hopes to."

Until now, successful asylum seekers have been granted refugee status for five years and allowed to bring their families to the UK. They then got almost automatic fee-free permanent settlement with continued access to benefits and housing.

Refugees will also be required to "earn" their settlement rights by working and contributing to society.

They will have to wait up to 20 years before they can apply to settle in the UK - and up to 30 years if they arrived illegally via small boats across the Channel or by claiming asylum after overstaying work, student or visitor visas.

Labour insisted the number of foreign criminals, failed asylum seekers and immigration offenders being deported have been "scaled up" to nearly 60,000 since July 2024.

Ms Mahmood has also vowed to rewrite human rights laws, with British judges set to be ordered to prioritise public safety and immigration controls over Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to a family life.

She will warn again of the rise of the "far-right", adding "a loss of control breeds fear and when fearful, people turn inwards."

And the Home Secretary will also dismiss the Greens' fairytale of open borders.

She will say: "Some say, in response, that we should turn to the path proposed by the Greens.

"That we should create a world without borders, that nation states are social constructs and patriotism is a dirty word.

"To some, this might seem like harmless student politics. But the danger and the possible damage is real.

"A party leader, who seeks the highest office in the land, should not be on the beaches of France helping migrants onto small boats encouraging them to make a perilous crossing.

"Creating further incentives to come to this country illegally, increasing the already vast burden placed on taxpayers in this country.

"Polanski calls for the most expensive and expansive migration policies anywhere in the world."