I remember the first time one of these immigration bills trundled through the Commons. Same fanfare, same promises, same weary faces on the green benches wondering how to spin yet another round of tweaks. Today it's the Immigration and Asylum Bill 2026's turn for second reading, the stage where MPs are supposed to thrash out the main principles before it disappears into committee for more quiet amendments.
Introduced on 30 June after being flagged in the King's Speech back in May, the bill makes provision about immigration, asylum and modern slavery. On paper it sounds comprehensive. In practice it reads like another layer of bureaucratic plaster over a system that's been cracked for years. New appeals structure for asylum cases, requirements for some asylum seekers to repay support, a narrower take on Article 8 family life claims, tweaks to modern slavery recovery periods and beefed-up transparency rules for supply chains with the threat of hefty fines up to a million quid or more.
The public has heard variations on this tune before. Every government since the Blair years has sworn it was getting tough, only for the numbers to climb and the hotels to fill with claimants while locals watch their towns change beyond recognition. This bill is no different. It promises efficiency and deterrence but stops well short of the decisive action needed to restore border sovereignty and actually stop the boats.
Lord David Alton welcomed parts of it in a statement released today, particularly the modern slavery measures. He said: "I welcome the Government’s proposed legislative changes to implement three recommendations made by the Joint Committee on Human Rights in its report into forced labour in UK supply chains. These measures would expand and strengthen the legal requirements to publicly report the actions taken to address modern slavery in supply chains each year. New penalties for non-compliance could reach £1,000,000 or more, so relevant companies and public authorities must take their duties seriously, and not treat them as simply a rubber stamping exercise. The public deserve to have confidence that the goods and services they use on a daily basis are not produced at a terrible cost to people across the globe. That is why we need strong measures in place to ensure that businesses and public bodies are taking adequate steps to understand what is going on in their supply chains and take effective action to reduce the risks of forced labour and modern slavery."
Fair enough on the supply chain side. Nobody serious wants slave labour baked into our morning coffee or clothes. But the asylum and immigration bits feel like the usual dance around the real issue. Narrower Article 8 claims and repayment rules might trim a few abuses. They won't fix the pull factors that keep the dinghies coming across the Channel or the backlog that clogs the system.
