Women and childen to lose out most from Home Office plan to tighten rules on refugee family reunions, experts say
Good morning. August used to be known as the “silly season” in newspaper offices because, with little proper news happening, journalists had to resort to trivia. Then we had Brexit, and the four-week silly season got replaced by eight years of chaos. This year there has been a slight reversion to the pre-2016 norm because the UK political debate over the summer has been entirely dominated by a debate about small boats and irregular migration which has not been fully rational. The claim that asylum seekers are posing a significant threat to public safety is classic xenophobic scaremongering, of the kind that has been a factor in British public life for centuries. (There is a good explanation of why the evidence does not support the scaremongering here.) But the issue isn’t remotely silly either. Small boat arrivals are a huge policy challenge for the government, because of the costs and the pressures on public services, but above all because the public want them to stop.
And, with the summer recess now over and MPs returning to the Commons, this is still the top item on the government’s agenda. As Kiran Stacey reports, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is due to make a statement to the Commons on this topic this afternoon. She will cover various topics, including providing more detail on the government’s plan to restrict the extent to which article 8 of the European convention on human rights (the right to family life) can be used by asylum seekers to avoid deporting and giving an update on the “one in, one out” returns deal with France. But she will also give details of plans to restrict the ability of people granted asylum to bring family members to the UK. Kiran says:
Cooper will promise to overhaul the UK’s family reunion policy, which allows people to bring their partners and children to the country once they are granted refugee status.
The number of people who entered on such visas has risen sharply since 2022, with just over 20,000 being granted in the year to June 2025 – a 30% rise on the previous 12 months.
Officials say the rise in refugee numbers is in part to blame, but they also believe the UK now has a more lax regime than many nearby countries after moves elsewhere in Europe to tighten their rules.
In Denmark, for example, refugees must prove financial stability before being allowed to bring over family members. Cooper is understood to be looking at similar changes, as well as setting a minimum period refugees must be settled before being allowed to invite their families.
This proposal has already been criticised by refugee advocates. Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, says 90% of those affected will be women and children. He has posted these on Bluesky.
The immigration white paper proposed putting in financial and language requirements. Financial requirements for refugees who have been stuck in the asylum system unable to work, and language requirements for children escaping war zones.
This will either force families to stay split up, leaving thousands of women and children in extremely dangerous situations, or it forces them into dangerous journeys. Either way, this has terrible consequences.
In the year to June 2025, 92% of refugee family reunion visas were given to women and children. More than half went to children. Two-thirds to people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan. It helps integration and provides a safe route. Family reunion should be easier, not harder.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, are on a visit to Reigate where they are due to speak to the media.
11am: Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, holds a press conference highlighting plans for councils to save money via changes to the way they invest their pension funds.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: At least two ministerial statements are expected in the Commons, from Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, on the asylum system, and from David Lammy, the foreign secretary, on Gaza.
4pm: The full written judgment is due to be published explaining the court decision on Friday blocking the temporary injuntion saying asylum seekers should be removed from the Bell hotel in Epping.
Afternoon: The Liberal Democrats hope to make an application in the Commons to the Speaker for an emergency debate on Gaza.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
Key events
Back to Tim Allan (see 10.18am), and here are two political commentators on his appointment as the government’s new executive director of communications.
From Steve Richards
I remember well Tim Allan’s leaving drinks at Number 10 in the earlyish Blair era. In his fulsome farewell speech Tony Blair noted only half jokingly “Tim’s even more right wing than me..”
From Philip Stephens
The same Tim Allan who as head of Portland had a contract to polish Vladimir Putin’s reputation?
Experts criticise Tory thinktank report claiming ECHR withdrawal would not undermine Good Friday agreement
The Conservatives and Reform UK both want the UK to withdraw from the European convention on human rights because they believe this would allow the government to more easily deport asylum seekers. The Conservatives have not formally declare this as policy yet, but an announcement is due at their autumn conference and Kemi Badenoch has made it clear where her thinking is heading.
Labour has argued that this would undermine the Good Friday agreement, the foundation of peace in Northern Ireland, because ECHR membership is an integral part of that deal.
Today Policy Exchange, a Tory thinktank, has published a report claiming that this argument is bogus because the protections ensured by the ECHR references in the agreement could be delivered in another way. It has been written by Conor Casey, a law lecturer, Richard Ekins, a law professor at Oxford University, and Sir Stephen Laws, a former head of the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, the government department that drafts legislation.
Here is an extract summarising their argument.
The Belfast agreement is made up of two closely related agreements. The first is the British-Irish agreement, which is a treaty between the UK and Ireland. The second is the multiparty agreement, which is a political agreement between the British and Irish governments and several different political parties of Northern Ireland, an agreement that provides the foundation for the peace process. This political agreement turns in part on various commitments made by the British government and the Irish government. In signing the British-Irish agreement, the UK and Ireland agreed “to support, and where appropriate implement, the multiparty agreement”, but it is only the former agreement that is binding in international law.
The British-Irish agreement does not refer to the ECHR and none of its terms suggest in any way that either the UK or Ireland, or both of them, were undertaking to remain member states of the ECHR in perpetuity …
The multiparty agreement does include several references to the ECHR. The context of the multiparty agreement, which includes the troubled history of Northern Ireland and fears about the risks of abuse of devolved power, makes it very clear that these references concern the importance of the law of Northern Ireland imposing limits on the new assembly and on public bodies exercising devolved power. This report considers closely each reference to the ECHR in the multiparty agreement and shows that, as one would expect in view of the context of the agreement, each reference concerns domestic law and has nothing whatsoever to do with the position in international law. That is, the references to the ECHR in the multiparty agreement have nothing to do with the individual right of petition to the Strasbourg court, a right which the Belfast Agreement does not create or rely upon, or, more generally, with the UK or Ireland’s acceptance of the Strasbourg court’s jurisdiction or its developing jurisprudence as a matter of international law. British or Irish withdrawal from the ECHR would in no way undercut, breach or cut across the multiparty agreement.
On legal/academic Bluesky, there are plenty of experts who disagree. This is from John Springford from the Centre for European Reform.
It’s fascinating watching the same cycle of f%¥£ing around and finding out happening. Some anti-ECHR lawyers in Britain might say this [that leaving the ECHR won’t affect the Good Friday agreement], but Irish and EU politicians think differently, and politics will determine their reaction, not law alone.
These are from George Peretz KC, chair of the Society of Labour Lawyers.
I’d add two pretty obviously dubious claims in the PE report (read it carefully and you’ll see weasel words creeping in to hide the weaknesses): (1) that the (express) agreement to incorporate the ECHR into NI law with access to courts and remedies doesn’t mean “ECHR as interpreted by the ECtHR);
and (2) that that agreement is confined to devolved bodies as opposed to the UK government acting in NI under NI law (when any act of the UK government in NI is of course under NI law).
Strip those dodgy claims out and you are left with the point that if the UK left the ECHR, in order to comply with the GFA the ECHR (as interpreted by the ECtHR) would still have to apply in NI – including to UK government decisions and UK legislation such as immigration.
That result is so obviously problematic as to rule it out as a practical suggestion.
Further, the paper doesn’t deny (it can’t) that leaving the ECHR would entitle the EU at once to terminate Trade and Cooperation provisions of great importance to immigration control and fighting crime. The EU could also terminate the TCA as a whole.
And this is from Glen O’Hara, a history professor.
Shall I tell you what’s wrong with the Policy Exchange nonsense? Okay: I’m about the most conciliatory Irish unity sceptic there could possibly be among Nationalists. Without ECHR, I would consider the Belfast Agreement, and the compromises and agreements the Union rests on, as dissolved.
The Reform UK press conference is starting now. There is a live feed here.
I will post any highlights later.
Today’s announcement about a new communications chief at No 10 (see 10.18am) will be seen by some as an acknowledgment that Labour has done a fairly lousy job of pushing back at the Reform UK/Tory attacks on its small boats record this summer. Frances Ryan makes this argument in her Guardian column today.
Here is an extract.
Few have made it easier for Reform to fill the void than [Keir] Starmer, who could have hardly done more if he had subletted Downing Street out to [Nigel] Farage and washed the towels. It is not that the prime minister hasn’t been working – last month, he disrupted his family holiday in Scotland to fly to Washington DC – or that he should not have had a break, of course, but that after pushing through the disastrous welfare bill, the entire government has seemingly disappeared from public view. The most pressing issues – immigration misinformation, far-right mobilisation, starvation in Gaza – have come and stayed in recent weeks with next to no input from our elected leaders.
Ministers have been noticeably missing in action from media rounds, with Rachel Reeves – the most recognisable figure on the frontbench after Starmer – out of sight working on the autumn budget. The government in effect put its out-of-office on for August (“Taking time away until September. See you in Liverpool!”) and left the inbox to max out.
And here is the full article.
Home Office says small boats arrival numbers in August lower than in past three years
Back to small boats, and in her Commons statement this afternoon Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, will suggest that the government is making progress in disrupting the smuggling gangs. The Home Office says there were fewer small boats crossing the channel in August than in any other August since 2019.
This statistic is less impressive than it sounds, because boats have got bigger over the past six years, and they are increasingly overcrowded. The Home Office says that is because the authorities are getting better at seizing boats and engines.
The Home Office also says the number of people arriving on small boats was lower this August than in the past three years, “despite an identical number of crossing days as last year”. It says:
The 55 boats to cross the channel this August is the lowest total for the month since 2019, when 34 boats crossed near the start of the small boats crisis. Since then, there were 116 small boats in August 2020, 99 in 2021, 192 in 2022, 102 in 2023, and 75 in 2024, meaning that the number of successful boat crossings this August has been less than half the average of the previous five years (55 compared to 116.8 – 47%).
The shortage of boats has also contributed to unprecedented levels of overcrowding. Average boat occupancy this August was 64.8, the highest monthly average on record, compared to an average of 59 over the first seven months of the year.
The 3,567 arrivals in August 2025 compares to 4,149 last August, 5,369 in August 2023, and 8,631 in August 2022, which was the highest monthly total for arrivals on record.
But overall small boat arrival numbers are still at a record level for this point of the year, as this Migration Watch UK graphic illustrates.
Former Blair aide Tim Allan joins No 10 as executive director for government communications
Downing Street has also announced that Tim Allan, who worked as Alastair Campbell’s deputy in the early days of New Labour but who left No 10 to set up Portand, a PR company, is joining Keir Starmer’s team as the government’s executive director of communications.
This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar on the move.
Big shake up of the No 10 comms operation too.
Tim Allan, an adviser to Tony Blair who went on to fund PR giant Portland, coming in as executive director of govt comms.
(This is a political role separate from that of David Dinsmore who has been tasked with improving the civil service comms operation).
James Lyons, No 10’s director of comms for strategy, is stepping down, but Steph Driver, his counterpart for day-to-day comms, and who is close to Starmer, stays put, answering to Allan.
And these are from Politico’s Anne McElvoy.
A huge change in the arrival of Tim Allan of strategic communications weakness in govt. Also massively strengthens the arm of the more “New Labour” constituency close to PM. And gather there was unease in some quarters about how the existing number 10 communications set up would work with an overall government head of Comms in David Dinsmore. That won’t be such a problem for Tim Allan.
Interesting that it’s one Blairite in with T Allan and one out in the Downing Street pack shuffle as Liz Lloyd leaves.
This was a waste of an experience’d hire: but never quite grafted on to the Starmer vibe and vice versa. So the policy jobs remain in the penumbra of people who have been close to KS – and the overall comms will be run by someone who’s default setting is to aim for the centre or even the right of centre.
I’m not saying this will work, but it is something of a challenge
Darren Jones appointed ‘chief secretary to the PM’, and put in charge of policy delivery
Here is the Downing Street news release about the mini No 10 reshuffle, including Darren Jones becoming chief secretary (minister of state) to the PM. Jones was chief secretary to the Treasury. (See 9.43am.)
This is a new post. There is no obvious precedent, although Boris Johnson also decided to bring a minister into No 10 in a delivery/enforcer role when he made Steve Barclay his chief of staff. (That appointment was not generally seen as a success.)
Keir Starmer already has a chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. But McSweeney is seen as better at strategising, campaigning and electioneering than he is at performance management. Jones, a spreadsheet enthusiast, will “work collaboratively across UK government to drive forward progress in key policy areas, reporting directly to the prime minister”, No 10 says.
Starmer shakes up No 10 operation with mini-reshuffle
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been moved to a new senior role in Downing Street as Keir Starmer attempts to get a grip on delivery before what is likely to be a tumultuous autumn for the government, Pippa Crerar and Peter Walker report.
Women and childen to lose out most from Home Office plan to tighten rules on refugee family reunions, experts say
Good morning. August used to be known as the “silly season” in newspaper offices because, with little proper news happening, journalists had to resort to trivia. Then we had Brexit, and the four-week silly season got replaced by eight years of chaos. This year there has been a slight reversion to the pre-2016 norm because the UK political debate over the summer has been entirely dominated by a debate about small boats and irregular migration which has not been fully rational. The claim that asylum seekers are posing a significant threat to public safety is classic xenophobic scaremongering, of the kind that has been a factor in British public life for centuries. (There is a good explanation of why the evidence does not support the scaremongering here.) But the issue isn’t remotely silly either. Small boat arrivals are a huge policy challenge for the government, because of the costs and the pressures on public services, but above all because the public want them to stop.
And, with the summer recess now over and MPs returning to the Commons, this is still the top item on the government’s agenda. As Kiran Stacey reports, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, is due to make a statement to the Commons on this topic this afternoon. She will cover various topics, including providing more detail on the government’s plan to restrict the extent to which article 8 of the European convention on human rights (the right to family life) can be used by asylum seekers to avoid deporting and giving an update on the “one in, one out” returns deal with France. But she will also give details of plans to restrict the ability of people granted asylum to bring family members to the UK. Kiran says:
Cooper will promise to overhaul the UK’s family reunion policy, which allows people to bring their partners and children to the country once they are granted refugee status.
The number of people who entered on such visas has risen sharply since 2022, with just over 20,000 being granted in the year to June 2025 – a 30% rise on the previous 12 months.
Officials say the rise in refugee numbers is in part to blame, but they also believe the UK now has a more lax regime than many nearby countries after moves elsewhere in Europe to tighten their rules.
In Denmark, for example, refugees must prove financial stability before being allowed to bring over family members. Cooper is understood to be looking at similar changes, as well as setting a minimum period refugees must be settled before being allowed to invite their families.
This proposal has already been criticised by refugee advocates. Jon Featonby, chief policy analyst at the Refugee Council, says 90% of those affected will be women and children. He has posted these on Bluesky.
The immigration white paper proposed putting in financial and language requirements. Financial requirements for refugees who have been stuck in the asylum system unable to work, and language requirements for children escaping war zones.
This will either force families to stay split up, leaving thousands of women and children in extremely dangerous situations, or it forces them into dangerous journeys. Either way, this has terrible consequences.
In the year to June 2025, 92% of refugee family reunion visas were given to women and children. More than half went to children. Two-thirds to people from Syria, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iran and Sudan. It helps integration and provides a safe route. Family reunion should be easier, not harder.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly, the shadow housing secretary, are on a visit to Reigate where they are due to speak to the media.
11am: Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, holds a press conference highlighting plans for councils to save money via changes to the way they invest their pension funds.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: At least two ministerial statements are expected in the Commons, from Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, on the asylum system, and from David Lammy, the foreign secretary, on Gaza.
4pm: The full written judgment is due to be published explaining the court decision on Friday blocking the temporary injuntion saying asylum seekers should be removed from the Bell hotel in Epping.
Afternoon: The Liberal Democrats hope to make an application in the Commons to the Speaker for an emergency debate on Gaza.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
#Women #children #lose #Home #Office #plan #tighten #rules #refugee #family #reunions #experts #politics #live #Politics
