Ukraine, Asylum Seekers, And Uk Politics: Key Facts

Ukrainian head of state Volodymyr Zelenskyy and various other European leaders are in Washington DC today to satisfy United States president Donald Trump, complying with the latter’s top with Russian head of state Vladimir Putin last Friday (15 August).

Zelenskyy’s Visit to Washington

Today, on BBC Radio 4’s Today program [1:38:46], darkness housing secretary Sir James Intelligently claimed:” [Labour] are opening up asylum resorts, they are raising using asylum accommodation around the country”. It is true that under Work the variety of asylum hunters housed in resorts has actually enhanced, as our Government Tracker describes. According to the most recent readily available information, 32,345 asylum seekers were housed in hotels at the end of March 2025, up from 29,585 at the end of June 2024, right before Labour entered into workplace.

In the words of the NHS, the strategy will certainly stress 3 essential shifts: from medical facility to area, from analogue to electronic and from health issues to avoidance. And the government has actually currently introduced some modifications, consisting of strategies to abolish NHS England itself.

Asylum Accommodation: Hotel Use

NHS Transformation: Key Shifts

As we described in a fact check earlier this week, while it is real that the number of hotels being made use of to house asylum seekers has decreased from a top of over 400 in summer season 2023 to 210 as of July 2025, almost all of this reduction took area prior to Labour came into government.

While tens of countless individuals found getting in the UK irregularly arrive using small watercraft going across, thousands are additionally found using other paths (for example, in lorries). And, as the College of Oxford’s Movement Observatory has kept in mind, it’s challenging to accurately estimate the variety of people getting in or living in the UK illegally, because several might never ever be identified.

Irregular Migration & Small Boats

The Conventional analysis reportedly compared 2025 jail data to 2021 population stats which are most likely outdated, and appears to have actually used information on the imprisonment of international nationals generally to draw conclusions concerning little watercraft arrivals particularly.

It was reported last week that US authorities thought Russia could take out from 2 other regions of Ukraine– Zaporizhzhia and Kherson– which it currently partially inhabits. It’s because been reported that a deal would just freeze the existing front lines, instead than see Russian pressures take out from these areas completely.

And recently, after we got in touch, the Guardian got rid of an inaccurate declaration in its e-newsletter, which asserted that “the variety of resorts made use of to house asylum seekers has actually halved in the year given that Work took power”. In a modification note the Guardian stated the incorrect insurance claim was based on a statement made by a government minister. The government has not yet remedied this case when asked.

Inaccurate Claims on Asylum Hotels

A Skies Information post on X (formerly Twitter) claimed: “Shadow Home Assistant Chris Philp states the number of asylum resorts has climbed since the basic political election in 2024, after asserting 200 were shut down in the nine months before.” Nonetheless, according to the video in the message– and Hansard’s records of it– Mr Philp in fact stated that “the numbers in asylum resorts have really gone up”.

Today, the wellness assistant Wes Streeting claimed in the Sunlight that the plan will certainly consist of “basic adjustments to exactly how we hire individuals to become medical professionals”. Particularly, he claimed it would certainly deal with the truth that “only 5% of clinical school participants are from a working-class background”.

Access to Medical School

Neither the Office nor the Office for National Data (ONS) currently release price quotes of the UK’s overall irregular migrant populace, and in a 2019 record the ONS stated: “By its very nature, it is very challenging to understand the specific size of the illegally resident population and because of the obstacles in making trustworthy price quotes the federal government has actually not generated any type of main price quotes considering that the mid-2000s.”

Illegal Immigration Numbers

The headline and first paragraph of its original story declared the population of the city was set to “soar by nearly 900,000” over the following decade, according to figures from the Workplace for National Statistics (ONS).

And naturally, it shows only one method of analyzing the social history of those that relate to clinical college. The same research located that a higher proportion, 16% of entrants, lived in the most-deprived fifth of neighbourhoods, a number that more than increased in between 2012 and 2021. Regarding 26% of entrants likewise had moms and dads without a college degree, where this info was known.

In a column released by the Daily Mail on Friday, 11 July, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP wrote: “One analysis of main figures has actually discovered that those who pertain to Britain unlawfully are 24 times more likely to end up behind bars.”

The Office informed us that 210 asylum hotels are currently being used, which they anticipated more to shut. On 3 March 2025, Dame Angela Eagle MP, preacher for boundary security and asylum, claimed that in July 2024 there were 213 resorts in procedure, suggesting the variety of resorts being used is currently a little lower than when Work first came into workplace.

On top of that, it deserves noting that while Mr Farage and Mr Tice’s insurance claims seem to describe “prohibited” or irregular travelers as a whole, the Conservatives’ figure was reported as being particularly about those showing up by little boats, instead of those arriving in the UK “unlawfully” using any kind of technique of access.

The information additionally showed that there were 71,339 asylum candidates residing in other types of non-hotel holiday accommodation at the end of March 2025, compared to 67,057 at the end of June 2024. The majority of these were in “dispersal accommodation”, which is longer-term short-lived lodging taken care of by service providers in support of the Office, with others housed in “initial holiday accommodation”, which is commonly shared accommodation while an asylum seeker is having their insurance claim for support evaluated.

At one point greater than 120 Labour MPs had threatened to elect against the government’s welfare legislation, compeling a U-turn and the intro of numerous concessions. It is uncertain whether these will suffice to ensure the expense’s flow, as previously this morning it arised that at the very least 39 Work MPs still mean to oppose the legislation.

We have actually likewise asked the Home Office to correct minister Lord Hanson’s claim on LBC, discovered by our AI devices, that: “We’ve cut in half the variety of hotels that remained in usage at the peak of the Tory federal government’s resort use.” The Home Office hasn’t yet responded.

Ozempic and Weight Loss Support

The article, released 5 August, was headlined “Ozempic individuals ‘require support for a year after therapy'”, and was consisted of on the paper’s front web page that day. The initial paragraph of the short article stated: “People ought to be supported for as much as a year after quiting weight-loss drugs to prevent them from restoring weight”.

With an existing working majority of 165, Labour’s expenses would typically anticipate to be provided risk-free passage by a comfortable margin, however loads of the event’s MPs are apparently threatening to rebel, making the future of the regulation less certain.

Donetsk Region Fortified

The Institute for the Study of War has noted that the current cutting edge in Donetsk is greatly fortified, which delivering the entire region would possibly leave adjoining components of Ukraine a lot more susceptible to future Russian assaults.

And last week, after we got in touch, the Guardian removed an inaccurate statement in its newsletter, which asserted that “the number of resorts used to house asylum seekers has actually halved in the year because Work took power”. In an adjustment note the Guardian said the incorrect claim was based on a declaration made by a government minister. The government has not yet corrected this case when asked.

It’s worth keeping in mind nevertheless that while the overall variety of resorts in use appears to have come down a little, there have actually been current reports of brand-new resorts being intended to house asylum seekers. It’s feasible this is what Mr Cleverly meant when he claimed Labour was “opening” resorts.

While no offer was struck in between both leaders, it’s been reported that Mr Trump might press Mr Zelenskyy to agree to territorial needs made by Mr Putin including the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.

According to the Office’s latest accounts, “the total variety of acquired resorts minimized by 71 across 2024-25”, although it did not specify a specific number, and this time around duration additionally includes figures from when the Conservatives were in workplace.

These claims show up to refer to Conventional celebration evaluation initially reported in The Times on 3 July, which asserted that “Channel migrants” were 24 times more likely to head to jail than British citizens. As we discussed in our reality examine last week, this figure is not reputable, based on the details reported.

The Times has actually modified a heading that improperly suggested physicians should keep track of people taking Ozempic shots in order to lose weight for a year adhering to therapy, after the paper was spoken to by Full Reality.

In a post shared on X (previously Twitter) on 12 August Mr Campbell stated: “Incredible exactly how neither @KemiBadenoch or @RobertJenrick objected when part of the government opening up 400 asylum hotels yet in some way find time to get on the Farage bandwagon when Work has taken care of to cut the number in fifty percent.”

, the head of Reform UK’s division of government efficiency Zia Yusuf declared: “There are north of a million people in this nation unlawfully, at least– the real number’s probably higher than that. It’s feasible that today’s Reform UK cases may have been based on a study released by the Pew Study Center think storage tank in 2019, which estimated there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million unsanctioned migrants in the UK in 2017, 48% of whom it estimated were male.

We checked into this claim, which comes from research by the Sutton Trust published in February this year. It discovered that “5% of participants [to clinical institution] in 2021 were from the most affordable socioeconomic group”, defined as those with moms and dads that worked in “routine and semi-routine line of work”. (It sounds like this would certainly as a result exclude the children of physicians.).

It’s possible that today’s Reform UK cases may have been based upon a research study published by the Seat Research Center brain trust in 2019, which estimated there were between 800,000 and 1.2 million unauthorised migrants in the UK in 2017, 48% of whom it approximated were male. This would generate a top quote of around 576,000 guys in the UK without the right to be right here. Mr Yusuf has formerly referred to a figure of 1.2 million when talking about the variety of individuals that are “below in this country unlawfully”.

As our reality check explained, figures reveal that in its initial year in office Work minimized the number of resorts used to house asylum hunters by a web of 3– from 213 to 210. Federal government data reveals that the variety of asylum applicants being housed in hotels rose in between June 2024 and June 2025 (the duration broadly covering Work’s very first year in government).

As we have actually created previously, we don’t know with any certainty how numerous people are in the UK without the right to be here. The College of Oxford’s Migration Observatory has actually alerted that research studies trying to put a number on the UK’s unauthorised migrant populace should be treated with care because of large margins of error.

Previous Downing Street communications supervisor and host of The Rest Is National politics podcast Alastair Campbell has actually dealt with an insurance claim he made about Labour’s document on closing supposed ‘asylum resorts’, after being called by Full Reality.

Bills are not opposed in the beginning reading, as this is typically a totally official event, without any real dispute or voting. The second analysis, nevertheless, is where bills can be opposed if MPs put forward “reasoned amendments” to the legislation, or ballot against the motion to provide the bill its second analysis. This is the earliest opportunity MPs have to obtain a costs thrown away.

, the head of Reform UK’s department of federal government efficiency Zia Yusuf claimed: “There are north of a million individuals in this country illegally, at least– the actual number’s most likely higher than that. There are north of around 600,000 males that are in this nation unlawfully.”

Conflict in this region has actually been recurring because 2014– eight years prior to Russia’s major intrusion of Ukraine started– when Russian-backed separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, that make up Donbas, broke away from the Ukrainian government.