Dan Haley | @cymroofbarri89 on X

As 2025 draws to a close, it would not be unfair to say this year has proved an uphill battle for Keir Starmer's government when it comes to tackling immigration, both legal and illegal. On small boat arrivals, the Home Office and Border Force recorded 1,374 irregular migrants crossing the English channel in the last 7 days alone. 

Between September 2024 and September 2025 there were a staggering 51,249 detected migrants coming in, roughly the entire population of Bridgend, Wales's 5th most populous town. This is a 40% increase on last year, and these figures do not even factor in other means of entering the country such as those who stowaway on the Eurostar or on ferries. 

Since 2018, over three-quarters of these illegal arrivals have been adult males aged 18 or over. Over half of them this year belonged to only 5 nationalities: Eritrean, Afghan, Iranian, Sudanese and Somali. Eritrea's own human rights record is among the worst in the world as is Iran's and most of these countries sit in the bottom rung on the Human Development Index (HDI).

Afghans and Eritreans, as we know, are already overrepresented per capita in terms of sex crimes here. It was only recently a homeless Eritrean, Amer Mohammed, was convicted of a “terrifying” sex attack on a woman at the Margate Seafront. Most of these are fighting age men, and from frankly backwards, third-world countries who really have no business being here. 

In terms of asylum claims, these have increased again from last year to the highest level on record, going back nearly five decades. A whopping total of 110,051 claimed asylum in that same period, a number nearly the population size of Chelmsford. It is up 13% from the previous year and up 7% on the previous high of 103,081 back in 2022. 

Over half (52%) of asylum seekers in this record year arrived illegally on small boats. Some familiar nationalities crop again in terms of the top five and who effectively represent 2 of every 5 claimants. Those are: Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Pakistan and Bangladesh in particular have seen a sharp increase in asylum claims, despite being perfectly safe countries. 

The Bangladeshi enclaves are already very noticeable, particularly in areas of London like Tower Hamlets. Bangla is now the second most spoken language in London with the Bengali signage in Whitechapel Tube Station signalling their predominance in that particular area. 

Again, we see the trend that it is adult men who are overrepresented and make up 62% (over 68,303) of all asylum claims, compared with just 23,210 women. We recall the Home Secretary imposing visa penalties on countries like Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Namibia for not accepting failed claimants. However they don't even rank in the top 10 for those claiming asylum overall, a drop in the bucket. 

It is worth mentioning Shabana Mahmood omitted her own native Pakistan, which ranks as the number 1 country of origin for asylum seekers, even though they already represent the 2nd largest ethnic group in the UK and the largest Pakistani concentration in the whole of Europe. 

Do they still get to continue coming over in vast numbers? Indians? Bangladeshi's too? None of them were mentioned in her speech, despite their numbers having a very tangible and alarming impact on the native demographics. 

It is true that Labour inherited an abysmal mess left by the previous 14 years of Tory mismanagement and chaos. 2026 will prove to be yet another challenging year against increasing public and political pressure. But we must not forget it was Tony Blair's New Labour that unleashed mass immigration on the country at levels which we had never witnessed before. 

We all now know the infamous quote from Andrew Neather, former speech writer for the Labour Party, whose immigration policies were a calculated and concerned effort to “rub the Right's nose in diversity”. This destructive political posturing and one-upmanship spelled disaster for the firmly rooted working-class communities who became increasingly alienated in this new Britain, which they did not recognise as their own any more. 

The damage and rot left in the ruins of New Labour's legacy cannot be overstated, but Starmer's Labour seeks to radically reform and achieve what the conservatives could not in their long tenure. 

Against a grim backdrop of yet more rampant migrant crime, their plans for peace-meal reforms like shortening the list of jobs employers can sponsor someone from overseas, ending existing exemptions on foreign care workers, and tightening the requirements for permanent residence are far too little, too late. 

Nationalist and nativist sentiment has only grown in a year dominated by reports of migrant murders, rapes, growing sectarianism, terrorism, state-sponsored censorship, the managed decay of our ideologically captured institutions, and of course our deeply troubling demographic decline. 

While net migration overall has actually fallen by two thirds, with a significant drop in arrivals for work and study, tough questions are still being asked of this deeply unpopular government who may be running out of time to fix these problems. 

2025 was the year debates on immigration went mainstream. No longer was it something to be discussed in hushed tones in the dark corners of some pub, but expressed openly and without fear. Immigration, and by extension multiculturalism, has long gone not only unchallenged, but actively encouraged and promoted by the chattering classes and establishment. 

Now, cabinet ministers from the Labour party are examining links between ethnicity and sex crime. If 2025 was the beginning of a paradigm shift in our collective consciousness, away from previous taboos that have mostly been put to bed, then 2026 has to be a year where we capitalise on the momentum of the pendulum coming our way. 

If we can capitalise on the gains we’ve already made in dominating the political conversation and normalising our position, then we must use it to work towards the only acceptable solution. We must use this opportunity to work towards making remigration the topic of 2026.