Huge asylum seeker petition waiting nearly 100 days for debate

A major petition to stop the Government giving financial support to asylum seekers has waited nearly 100 days for a debate date in Parliament. All proposals that garner at least 100,000 signatures are considered for debate by MPs, with time in the House of Commons not guaranteed. Parliament's website states: "Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate."

It adds that that the online document, which was set up by Bob Clements and had 427,449 signatures of support when it was closed after six months, has been "waiting for 97 days for a debate date". Mr Clements wrote: "This petition is to advocate a cessation of financial and other support provided to asylum seekers by the Government. This support currently includes shelter, food, medical care (including optical and dental), and cash support. I believe that such provisions may inadvertently incentivise illegal migration, particularly via the English Channel.

"This petition is to urge the Government to discontinue these support measures and payments."

The Government has responded to the petition, as it is required to do for those supported by at least 10,000 signatories.

It said: "We are determined to tackle illegal migration and end the use of asylum hotels but in the meantime there is a legal requirement to support asylum seekers who would otherwise be living on the streets.

"We are grateful to everyone who took the time to sign this petition.

"In response, we will first explain the background to the current situation, and then set out what the Government is doing about it."

The Government added: "The petition proposes ending that support immediately, and while we understand the objective behind that proposal, we have to recognise that - in many cases - the people currently receiving that support would end up living on the street instead, including many women and children.

"According to the latest official data, the number of rough sleepers in England in autumn 2024 was 4,667, so if we immediately ended the support given to every asylum-seeker, it would increase that number by multiple amounts.

"We believe a better approach is to continue speeding up the processing of asylum claims, so that people who are genuine refugees can be accepted, those who are not can be rejected and removed, and either way, we can keep working to cut the amount of money spent on asylum support.

"In addition, we will continue taking strong action to reduce the number of people entering the UK asylum system in the first place."

It comes as the new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has suggested that the UK could suspend visas from countries that do not "play ball" and agree to returns deals for migrants.