Immigration returns aren’t at ‘record levels’ under Labour

On Sky News on Wednesday the health secretary Wes Streeting MP claimed there’d been “record levels” of immigration returns and deportations, thanks to current home secretary Yvette Cooper MP.

This isn’t correct, based on the government’s own figures.

During Labour’s first year in office (between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025) a total of 35,052 returns of people with no legal right to be in the UK took place.

Because this figure was published on an ad-hoc basis we don’t have data to directly compare it with the same exact period in previous years, but official immigration statistics show that this figure is not a record for the number of immigration returns for a 12-month period, going back to 2004 when this data series began.

Between 2008 and 2017 total returns over a 12-month period were consistently above 35,000, peaking at around 47,000 in 2012.

For a more direct comparison, we can use official figures for the year ending June, which most closely overlaps with Labour’s first year in office.

These figures show that the 35,833 returns in the year ending June 2025 was the highest number over this period since 2017, but not a “record”.

We’ve also found no single quarter during Labour’s first year in office in which a “record” number of returns were carried out.

What about deportations?

The Home Office says deportations are “a specific subset of returns which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good”.

We don’t know exactly how many returns are classified as “deportations”. But we do know that enforced returns, the category which includes deportations, have also not reached “record” levels during Labour’s first year in office.

Between 5 July 2024 and 4 July 2025 a total of 9,115 enforced returns were carried out. Again, we can’t directly compare this figure with the same period in previous years, but it’s not a record for enforced returns over a 12-month period.

9,115 is the highest number of enforced returns over a 12-month period since 2018, but prior to 2018 enforced returns over a 12-month period were consistently above 10,000.

The year ending June 2025 figure of 9,072 enforced returns is also not a record for this period.

And as with overall returns, we found no single quarter during Labour’s first year in office in which enforced returns were at a “record” level.

The government did not comment directly on Mr Streeting’s comments when asked, but told us the 35,000 returns carried out during Labour’s first year in office was a 13% increase compared to the same period 12 months prior.

It’s worth noting that as well as not being a record number of returns, this figure does not represent a record percentage increase in returns over a 12-month period either.

We’ve fact checked a number of claims made by government ministers and MPs recently about Labour’s record on immigration returns, including a similar claim by Mike Tapp MP that it had carried out “record deportations”.