Ministers will crack down on international students applying for asylum in the UK in a move designed to tackle migration figures, after a series of bruising losses to Reform in the local elections.
An immigration white paper setting out the proposed reforms in mid-May will include measures to bring down the numbers of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims, the Guardian understands.
The government is finalising the proposals this month to reduce legal migration in the UK and tackle what it says are abuses of the visa system.
In March, the Home Office published figures showing that of the 108,000 people who claimed asylum in the UK in 2024, 16,000 held a student visa.
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has argued that the figures show the system is being abused by people saying they can support themselves financially when they apply to come to the UK, before claiming asylum at the end of their visa.
Home Office sources stressed that their immigration policies have been in the works for months and are not a response to Reform. Labour pledged to cut net migration in its election manifesto last summer.
Ministers are also examining ways to make it more difficult for international students to stay in the UK by taking up low-paid jobs. Such a move will face resistance from the Department for Education and from universities, which are reliant on the income from international students’ fees.
Labour MPs in the north of England have privately urged more action on migration after Reform emerged as the largest party in the local elections in England on Thursday. Reform won the byelection in Runcorn and Helsby, the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty, 10 councils and more than 600 council seats.
Jo White, who represents Bassetlaw and founded the Red Wall caucus of Labour MPs, said the government should stop “pussyfooting around” and “take a leaf out of President Trump’s book”.
In an article for the Sunday Telegraph, White called for digital ID cards as a way of reducing immigration and for regional grooming gang inquiries. She also criticised the cut to winter fuel payments for the elderly.
Other Labour MPs have argued that the government must tack to the left and that its controversial public spending cuts, including to disability benefits, have contributed to its unpopularity.
Rachael Maskell, the MP for York Central, said Labour’s driving mission should be “about protecting people”. “We were created to serve the needs of people across working areas of our country so that people had a real voice of the kind of change that they wanted to see,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“I believe that when Labour does not meet that sweet spot, that expectation that people have of a Labour government, then they start to look in less favourable places for where that help comes from. Yesterday, many people were searching for that response, to find that protection, to get that support.
Emma Lewell, the Labour MP for South Shields, said a “change of plan” was needed and that it was “tone deaf” for the prime minister to say on Friday that he would move “further and faster”.
Keir Starmer wrote for the Times that he would not blame the local election results on the “same old excuses”. “I get it,” he wrote. “Uncontrolled immigration, sewage in rivers, failing local services: I feel the same sharp edge of fury at the way our country has been let down as people who voted on Thursday night do.”
But in a warning shot to Starmer, Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, said it was wrong to “pander” to Reform.
“The Labour government needs to take Nigel Farage head on, not pander to his attempts to divide our country,” Davey said. “We saw in Canada how Mark Carney turned the tide against populism by standing up to Trump and staying true to his values. In this week’s elections, we were the only party to hold back Reform with our focus on community values and pavement politics.”
In recommendations due to be published next week, the Institute for Public Policy Research will urge ministers to reform the graduate visa route to ensure it can only be used for graduate-level work, and to consider closing the visa route for social care workers after the Guardian uncovered abuses in the system.
