London councils snub Home Office as immigration raids climb

At least seven London councils are now refusing to co-operate with Home Office immigration raids, limiting help for enforcement even as the capital recorded more illegal working visits than any other part of Britain last year.

Newham last week became the first Labour-led local authority to take the stance, after Lewisham, Lambeth, Hackney, Waltham Forest, Southwark and Haringey over the summer. Councillors in the east London borough unanimously backed a motion that the town hall should only co-operate where there is a clear legal obligation, and should not actively assist operations with council staff, buildings or equipment.

That means they will limit, or in some cases block, data sharing with the Home Office for immigration enforcement and work with local activist groups on a so-called sanctuary corridor for migrants. Businesses in the capital were visited 2,715 times in 2025, up by more than 700 on the year before.

A Home Office spokesman said the visits are intelligence-led and made no apology for joining local authorities to enable information sharing and fighting criminals who fuel immigration crime. Green-led Lewisham was first to sign off the non-co-operation policy in July, with a review of data-sharing and service agreements and a pledge not to use resources or public money for immigration enforcement.

The five other boroughs, also with Green leaders, followed with help from the Migrant Champions Network, set up by councillors from Islington and Oxford in 2022. It drafted the motion London councils have used. Southwark leader James McAsh, who defected to the Greens in February, said he had been working for years to minimise co-operation.

Evening Standard reporting shows town halls choosing distance from national enforcement while raid numbers in London keep rising. Ministers still expect councils to help stop illegal working. The gap between local motions and Home Office operations is now plain across large parts of the capital.

Original source: Evening Standard