BBC Verify Live: What the data shows about Labour’s performance on deportations and returns

Aidan McNamee
BBC Verify data journalist

The home secretary has said nearly 60,000 foreign nationals have been returned from the UK in the 19 months since Labour took office in July 2024 – a rise of 15% on the previous period.

Provisional Home Office figures back this up, but they also show a notable dip at the start of the year. January 2026 saw the lowest number of removals in almost three years, driven largely by a drop in voluntary returns.

Under Labour, voluntary departures have made up around three-quarters of all removals. In January, that share fell to 62%.

That includes people who leave the UK on their own, sometimes with financial support, as well as the largest cohort – those who leave the UK without the Home Office knowing.

These figures are still provisional and could change when the final data is published later this month.

The Home Office uses “returns” to cover anyone who leaves the UK after losing the right to live or work here. That can happen for a range of reasons, including an expired visa, a refused asylum claim, or a criminal conviction leading to deportation.

Labour pledged to increase returns of people with no legal right to be in the UK and the numbers have been rising for some time. Figures for the 12 months to September 2025 show an 11% increase on the same period a year earlier.

Enforced returns can be slower and more complex, often involving legal challenges or difficulties securing travel documents.

There are no official statistics on the number of people in the UK illegally, so it’s difficult to say what proportion of the population are removed from the country.

For more on the latest immigration and asylum data, check out BBC Verify’s migration tracker.