Record variety of immigrants apply for British citizenship underneath Labour forward of crackdown and menace of Reform authorities

A record number of immigrants have applied for British citizenship under Labour ahead of a crackdown and the impending threat of a Reform government.

A whopping 291,971 people submitted applications to the Home Office last year – rising from 253,757 in 2024.

Eligibility for UK citizenship requires having lived in the UK for five years or having parents with British citizenship.

Anyone who is married to a Brit and has lived in the UK for three years can also apply.

Experts say the sudden increase in applications has been fuelled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform all vowing to restrict welfare handouts for foreign nationals.

Foreign politics is also a motivator with a record number of Americans, for example, seeking UK citizenship in the wake of Donald Trump‘s re-election as President in 2024. 

But Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, previously insisted politics tends to be a ‘third or fourth order factor’ for people moving from ‘safe countries’, not a key reason on its own.

The UK’s three biggest parties have been attempting to win voters over with tighter immigration policies, promising to tighten access to the NHS, welfare and social housing if they win the next General Election.

A record number of immigrants have applied for British citizenship under Labour ahead of a crackdown and an impending threat of Reform government

The number of people granted citizenship has also risen to its highest level since 2013 amid an influx of applications. 

Robert Bates, Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control said: ‘These figures are the result of an uptick in non-EU migration that took place even before the Boris Wave. 

‘They reflect the fact that those from outside Europe are far more likely to remain in Britain long-term and look to obtain citizenship.

‘It is likely the current conversation around Indefinite Leave to Remain, and potential restrictions on foreign nationals’ access to benefits, has incentivised migrants already with settled status to apply for a British passport to ensure the maintain these perks. 

‘These alarming figures illustrate that changing settlement rules without also addressing the ease with which migrants can claim citizenship will do very little to reduce the fiscal and social burdens that mass migration has caused.’

The number of people applying for British citizenship is twice as many as the figure in 2017 (141,799) and amounts to a 15 per cent surge on last year.

The 235,782 applicants granted citizenship is slightly down on 2024’s numbers, but it is still the second highest amount in history. 

While Reform, Labour and the Tories have been jostling to win the electorate over with more stringent immigration policies, the resurgent Greens have positioned themselves as the pro-migration party.

Illegal migrants would be given a free house and paid a wage with no requirement to work under the Greens’ immigration policy.

Zack Polanski plans to let arrivals use the NHS for free the moment they enter Britain.

And they will be allowed to work ‘with no restrictions’ under plans for ‘a world without borders’.

According to the immigration proposals, the Greens seek ‘to establish a system that recognises that all migrants are treated as citizens in waiting and therefore supports and encourages them to put down roots in their new home’. 

The Conservatives, Reform UK and Labour last month derided the ‘open border plans’, branding them ‘financially reckless but also dangerous’.

But Mr Polanski’s party said it was ‘proud’ of the policies, which it claimed proved ‘popular’ on the doorstep during the Gorton and Denton campaign. 

Under the Green leader’s premiership all illegal migrants would be handed a wage ‘at the level of Universal Basic Income’ with ‘no requirement to be either working or actively seeking work’.

Migrant families would be ‘accommodated in a house or flat with exclusive use’ and lone men would ‘each have their own room’ in shared accommodation – but would be given their own property if they claimed to be LGBTQIA+ for ‘safeguarding purposes’.

The proposals add that illegal migrants ‘will be allowed to take up employment, with no restriction’ and will be ‘provided with free access to all NHS facilities’ the second they cross the Channel – with these rights remaining ‘even if their [asylum] case is rejected’.

Meanwhile immigration detention ‘will be abolished’ and even illegal migrants who have ‘exhausted all [asylum] appeal rights’ would not be deported.

The policy said: ‘There will be no requirement for any applicant, or any person whose case has been refused, to report regularly to the Department of Migration.’

Reform UK’s home office spokesman Zia Yusuf branded the plans ‘dangerous’.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘Under the Greens’ open-borders plans, not only is every hoodlum and criminal welcome to our shores but entitled to free housing, healthcare and anything else they might fancy. 

‘My only surprise is Zack Polanski isn’t promising to furnish them all with free heroin and crack cocaine, which he wants to legalise. The Greens’ policies are not only financially reckless but also dangerous.’ 

The Tories meanwhile accused the Greens of planning to ‘hand out a welcome pack to every illegal arrival’ and said the party had been captured ‘by hard-Left activists’. 

And a Labour source said: ‘The public expect immigration controls that are properly enforced – not the open-borders plan the Greens are proposing.’