Draft Asylum Seekers (Reception Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026

Parliament voted on 28 April 2026 to approve the Draft Asylum Seekers (Reception Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, passing by 308 votes to 81. The regulations, considered alongside a companion instrument covering failed asylum seekers, give the Home Secretary power to suspend or withdraw asylum support, including accommodation and financial assistance, from asylum seekers found to be working illegally, and remove the existing automatic duty on the Home Secretary to provide support in every case. The vote affects the roughly 107,000 people currently receiving asylum support in the UK, at a cost the government cited as approximately £4 billion in the financial year 2024-25. Supporters argue the change directs support toward those who are genuinely destitute while giving ministers a tool to act against rule-breaking. Critics argue that without a corresponding right for asylum seekers to work legally, the regulations push already-vulnerable people toward destitution rather than addressing the conditions that drive illegal working in the first place. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted almost unanimously in favour, with 306 combined ayes and a single Labour no vote. Opposition came primarily from the Liberal Democrats (55 no votes), the Scottish National Party (9), the Greens (5), Plaid Cymru (4), and several smaller parties. The Conservative Party had no vote recorded in the data. The vote sits within the government's broader asylum reform programme, which ministers have described as building a "fair but firm" system, and comes as Parliament continues to process legislation under the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.