Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

Tens of thousands of students are being contacted by the government as part of its plans to overhaul the UK's asylum system.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper says up to 15,000 students claim asylum at the end of their studies - and now many are being warned that they will be removed from the UK if they overstay their visas and have no legal reason to stay.

Cooper was questioned about the decision during media interviews this morning, after yesterday's lengthy House of Commons address on immigration.

We've got a roundup of five key things she said - on topics including smuggler gangs and "return hubs" in this earlier post.

But there's still a lot we don't know on how the government will follow through on Cooper's plan for a "major overhaul" of the system.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp, meanwhile, says Labour has offered "nothing but more slogans".

And Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces pressure as he tries to find a contrast with Reform, writes our political editor Chris Mason.

That brings our live coverage to a close for this morning, but you can read our news story for all the developments.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

We've been speaking to Dr Nuni Jorgensen at the Migration Observatory, an independent research centre at the University of Oxford, about what the government hopes to achieve with its campaign aimed at international students.

As we've been reporting, the Home Office is directly contacting people living in the UK on study visas warning them not to overstay, a move prompted by a spike in the number of students claiming for asylum when their course finishes.

Jorgensen says that 9% of asylum claims came from this group in 2022, compared with 15% in 2024 - but she said "it remains unclear" whether the government's outreach campaign marks an actual change in policy.

The home secretary has announced that international students who submit claims which "lack merit" will be removed from the UK - but Jorgensen said "the criteria for assessing a claim... and whether applicants would still undergo the standard asylum process, have not been specified".

The announcement "appears intended to have a deterrent effect... regardless of whether concrete changes follow".

Jorgensen adds that British universities have become increasingly reliant on revenue from international students’ tuition fees, pulling in approximately £10bn in fees in the 2021/22 academic year.

It remains to be seen whether this tougher rhetoric towards students will have a long-term impact.

Image source, PA Media

The Conservatives have responded to Yvette Cooper's comments this morning, and to Labour's immigration policy overhauls.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp describes them as "nothing but more slogans and press releases" and accused the government of "total failure to grip the crisis at our borders".

He says that despite promises to tackle immigration, Labour has closed just three hotels in a year.

The Liberal Democrats say that the government must "focus on speeding up the process of asylum applications" so that those with valid claims can begin to contribute to the community.

How many refugees are becoming homeless?published at 12:00 BST 2 September

12:00 BST 2 September

By Rob England

Earlier today, Yvette Cooper said local councils were seeing “a big increase” in homelessness applications from refugee families.

She was speaking as part of a government review into the family reunion visa system. Ministers want to reconsider how soon refugees can apply to bring relatives to the UK, in the hope that giving them more time to secure jobs and housing will reduce pressure on local services.

Some of these families are applying to councils for help because they are homeless, so what do the figures tell us?

Between January and March 2025, more than 4,000 refugee households in England were recorded as homeless - meaning either a single person or a family unit had applied for support after leaving Home Office accommodation.

This was the second quarter in a row that councils reported a rise in homelessness following a grant of refugee status.

The number previously hit a record high in December 2023.

A further 1,900 households were recorded as “at risk” of becoming homeless over the same period - also marking a second consecutive rise.

• You can read more from BBC Verify on their live page

Image source, PA Media

We've been focusing on migration and asylum this morning, but elsewhere the Green Party has been announcing its new leader.

Zack Polanski won the backing of 84% of members, and used part of his victory speech to weigh in on immigration.

He told members in London that "our communities will always stand together," adding: "We absolutely recognise that migrants are very much the backbone of this country."

You can read more about the new Green Party leader here.

Image source, Reuters

The home secretary's asylum system "overhaul" follows a series of protests outside asylum hotels in recent weeks.

The Bell Hotel in Epping has become a focal point, and today Epping Forest District Council has asked for permission to take its case to the UK Supreme Court.

Friday saw the Court of Appeal overturn a temporary injunction the council had been granted, which would have forced 138 asylum seekers to leave the hotel by 12 September.

"We are seeking the permission of the Court of Appeal for the Council to appeal to the Supreme Court," the council told its members in a letter.

Today's move does not commit the local authority to legal action, but leaves the door open to it.

How many students claim asylum in the UK?published at 11:20 BST 2 September

11:20 BST 2 September

By Lucy Gilder

This year the Home Office started to publish data on the routes people used to travel to the UK before claiming asylum.

The latest figures show that of the 111,084 people who claimed asylum in the year ending June 2025, nearly two fifths (41,100) had arrived in the UK on a visa or through another type of permission to enter the country.

And 14,800 of them (36%) were on study visas. This was the most common visa group to claim asylum in this period, although it’s down from 16,500 claimants in the same period last year.

The overall number of asylum claims from people who arrived in the UK on a visa or another type of permission has tripled over the past three years.

These figures do not provide any breakdown about the nationalities of these students, unlike the overall Home Office statistics on visas granted - nor do we know which institutions they were enrolled in.

Summer recess is over and Keir Starmer is chairing a meeting of his cabinet.

We don't know what's on the agenda but have seen ministers arrive for their first big meeting since Westminster whirred back into life.

Image source, PA

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

We've heard a lot from the home secretary about the government's asylum plans over the last 24 hours - but there are still some big unanswered questions.

• What will the new asylum appeals system will look like? Cooper has pledged to "overhaul" the appeals system, cutting backlogs by speeding up decision making - but the government hasn't published full details of how the redesigned system will work
• How will ECHR rules be applied in the future? The home secretary says Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right to respect for family life - can be "reinterpreted". The government wants it to be applied differently by UK judges, as opposed to withdrawing from the convention altogether - but how?
• What will a reformed refugee family reunion route look like? Yesterday's suspension is a temporary measure while a new framework is brought in - but we don't yet know the conditions under which refugees will be able to apply to bring relatives to the UK in the future
• When will the returns deal with France be up and running? Cooper expects the first returns by the "end of this month", but the exact start date and how many people will be sent to France under the scheme is still not known for certain

No denying that asylum and immigration are big challenges facing Labourpublished at 10:20 BST 2 September

10:20 BST 2 September

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Today’s announcement from Yvette Cooper about warning students not to overstay their visa is less significant than yesterday’s about closing down the refugee family reunion route.

But it is undoubtedly significant that the first two days of the government’s new term have majored on aspects of asylum and illegal immigration policy.

The conventional wisdom in Westminster that Reform are the only party who have spoken about this issue through the summer is overstated: the government in general - and Cooper in particular - also made a series of announcements through the summer about the policy area.

What’s undeniable, though, is that the government is struggling to reassure those voters most concerned about this issue that it is on course to – in Starmer’s words – “deliver, deliver, deliver”.

And it was striking too that Cooper acknowledged this morning that this issue is one of the biggest challenges facing Labour.

The government believes it has a good story to tell about beginning to take action and a positive direction of travel. But ministers know that before long they will need more than that.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, Reuters

"Delivery, delivery, delivery."

The words of Keir Starmer on his priorities during his curtain-raising interview for the new political term with Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 live yesterday.

It was a tacit admission that despite campaigning on a platform of "change" before the general election, there is plenty of evidence that plenty of folk think there has been nowhere near enough of it.

Or, plenty may have concluded that what has changed has changed in the wrong direction.

The prime minister argues it was always going to take time to get things changing, but he is frustrated he hasn't managed to deliver more of it up to now.

Part of his solution is another shake-up of his Downing Street team.

The other is to set out what he and the government are doing and to make the case that it is better than what he and his ministers are increasingly framing as the likely alternative: Reform UK.

Read for more analysis on the government's strategy here.

In Sudan, many millions of people have been affected by a brutal civil war that has been raging since 2023.

Mother of two, Hubab, who lived in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, tells the BBC that she managed to leave, get into the UK and obtain refugee status. She now lives in Scotland.

Her children, aged 12 and 16, arrived recently after she was separated from them for 20 months. Her husband, however, has not been able to join them yet.

Yesterday, the UK government announced that it was temporarily suspending new applications for a scheme that allows refugees to bring their family members to the UK.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Hubab says she "couldn't sleep last night," as the announcement has impacted her family greatly.

"I lost everything in Khartoum, we don't have even a house, we don't have anything," she says.

"I worry every day about my husband," Hubab says, adding that she does not know if he will be able to get out of Khartoum.

• You can read more about the civil war in Sudan here

Image source, PA Media

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper followed up yesterday's lengthy House of Commons statement on immigration with a media round this morning.

Here's what she had to say on the government's plans for a "major overhaul" of the UK's asylum system:

• The government is warning international students that they will be removed from the UK if they overstay their visas - Cooper says up to 15,000 claim asylum at the end of their studies even when things haven't changed in their home countries
• Cooper refused to be drawn on how many migrants the government expects to return in a scheme with France - here's a reminder of what the 'one in, one out' plan looks like
• While stressing the asylum system needs a "major overhaul", Cooper tells the BBC that the government has already averted having "tens of thousands" more people in hotels
• Smuggler gangs are using family reunions as part of their "advertising" for small boat crossings, which is why the government is temporarily suspending new applications for a scheme allowing refugees to bring their family members to the UK
• As part of a package of reforms, the government continues to explore the idea of setting up "return hubs" for failed asylum seekers in other countries - though Cooper refused to be drawn on which countries might be involved

The government has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by 2029.

But more asylum seekers were staying in hotels in June 2025 than in June 2024 - a few days before the general election when Labour came to power. This is according to the most recent data released by the Home Office.

At the end of June 2025, there were 32,059 people in hotels - up 2,474.

Despite the rise over 12 months, the number has fallen by 286 since March 2025.

The government does not regularly publish figures on the number of actual hotels in use, but government sources have suggested there are 210 asylum hotels, slightly down from 212 in July 2024.

For a full breakdown, read this BBC Verify explainer.

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The home secretary rules out suspending the European Convention of Human Rights, but says how it is applied in the UK "needs reforming".

When asked if the prime minister is "too much the human rights lawyer" to look at how international law is applied in UK courts. Before he moved into politics, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer worked as a barrister and specialised in human rights issues.

Cooper says international law needs to keep up with modern challenges, but that the "broad principles" can be reinterpreted within existing UK rules, and should be.

"We don't need to suspend [the ECHR] in order to take action" she says - adding the government can "clarify and change domestic legislation".

There is no silver bullet for fixing the asylum system, she continues. Opposition parties have been "standing on the shore line, shouting at the sea," she adds, but this government is getting on with "hard graft" of reforming the system.

That's the end of the home secretary's interview on BBC Radio 4. Stick with us and we'll unpick what she had to say.

Cooper is next asked how many migrants have so far been returned to France under the returns deal agreed with the French president.

She refuses to commit to a figure, stressing the government has always been clear that it is intended to be a pilot scheme.

Away from France, the government had been in talks with other countries to set up overseas "return hubs" for failed asylum seekers.

Asked about whether this is still an idea being considered, Cooper says it's something the government is still exploring alongside other measures but won't be drawn on what countries could sign up.

• Read more: UK in talks to send failed asylum seekers abroad

It's put to the home secretary that a consequence of her plan is that genuine refugees will be separated from their families.

But smuggler gangs are using the lure of family reunions as part of their "advertising" to get people to risk small boat journeys, Cooper says.

The government wants to prevent those crossings, she adds, while ensuring the UK "does its bit" to offer safe and legal asylum routes.

The home secretary points out that Labour is also rolling out new arrangements for unsupervised children as part of the changes announced yesterday.

Cooper says she continues to believe in the need to help people fleeing conflict, but the UK can't continue with "chaos" and criminal gangs profiting, which is undermining public consent for the system.

There needs to be "order and control," she insists.

The asylum system needs a major overhaul, Cooper says.

She says the government has already averted "tens of thousands" more people who would have been in hotels, but now it needs to "substantially clear out the system" in order to get the appeals system working.

She's asked why genuine refugees should be separated from their families, to which Cooper replies that she supports long-standing arrangements on reuniting families but that evidence suggests there is a change to the way rules are working.

This temporary suspension of reunion visas is being brought in because people are applying for relatives to join them "after only a month or so" when previously they had worked for a year or two first.

Read more: UK suspends refugee family reunion applications

Next on the media round for Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is an appearance on Radio 4's Today programme - watch and listen live at the top of this page.

She's asked first whether she agrees that the government has failed on smashing the gangs and stopping the boats.

Cooper says that Labour inherited a system in "chaos", in which criminal gangs have become embedded.

That's why the government is pushing for new powers for the police, she says, and again points to the treaty with France.

It's put to Cooper that many voters have given up on Labour when it comes to immigration.

The home secretary replies that her government is now putting in the foundations of a "fundamentally different approach", focused on a "major overhaul of the asylum system altogether".