One migrant every minute wins right to stay in UK
Record numbers of foreign nationals were granted citizenship or settlement in year to June
CHARLES HYMAS, BEN BUTCHER, OLLIE CORFE
One migrant is being granted settlement or citizenship in Britain every minute, Home Office data have revealed.
In the three months to June 2026, a total of 140,122 migrants were given indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or became British citizens, equivalent to 1.07 a minute.
Nearly 200,000 were given ILR in the 12 months ending June 2026, a 16-year record and 24 per cent more than the previous year, as the Boriswave of foreign nationals sought to settle permanently.
In the same period, a further 245,520 were granted British citizenship, a small fall of 4 per cent compared with the previous year, but close to a record high.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, is preparing to introduce reforms that will require most migrants to wait 10 rather than five years to gain ILR. Low-paid foreign workers or refugees will have to wait as long 15 or 20 years.
Backbenchers want her to water down the reforms by exempting care workers and dropping proposals to apply the changes retroactively to migrants who are already in the UK.
Her reforms would also bar migrants from claiming benefits until they had secured British citizenship, which they could only apply for one year after obtaining ILR.
The Home Office data also showed that almost 70,000 asylum seekers had been dispersed across Britain as Labour shut down hotel accommodation.
Some 69,038 asylum seekers are now living in houses, flats and bedsits – including houses in multiple occupation – which is up 4 per cent in a year and double the number a decade ago, according to the Home Office data.
The North West of England, including Manchester, currently houses the highest number of asylum seekers in receipt of Government support, with 16,349 in dispersed private rentals, almost a quarter of the total. …
The data show that if asylum seekers were to be redistributed evenly so that every council area had the same rate per head of population, the number housed in London, the South East, South West and East Anglia would more than double.
The South East would see the biggest increase, rising 152 per cent from 3,725 at present to 9,370, while local authorities facing the biggest influx would be Cornwall (551), Edinburgh (445) and Buckinghamshire (404). …
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