Cooper orders ‘crackdown’ on suspected illegal working for delivery apps

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a nationwide immigration “enforcement crackdown” which the Government says will target illegal working in the gig economy.

Officers will carry out checks in hotspots across the country where they suspect asylum seekers are working as delivery riders without permission.

It comes after Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat said they would ramp up facial verification and fraud checks over the coming months after conversations with ministers.

Last week the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, claimed in a post on X to have found evidence of people working illegally for the food delivery firms during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.

‘Abusing the system’

On Saturday, the Home Office said anyone caught “flagrantly abusing the system in this way” will face having state support discontinued, whether entitlement to accommodation or payments.

“Strategic, intel-driven activity will bring together officers across the UK and place an increased focus on migrants suspected of working illegally whilst in taxpayer-funded accommodation or receiving financial support,” the Home Office said.

“The law is clear that asylum seekers are only entitled to this support if they would otherwise be destitute.”

Businesses who illegally employ people will also face fines of up to £60,000 per worker, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.

Asylum seekers in the UK are normally barred from work while their claim is being processed, though permission can be applied for after a year of waiting.

It comes as the Government struggles with its pledge to “smash the gangs” of people-smugglers facilitating small boat crossings in the English Channel, which have reached record levels this year.

Some 20,600 people have made the journey so far in 2025, up 52% on the same period in 2024.

‘Sold a lie’

Ms Cooper said: “Illegal working undermines honest business and undercuts local wages, the British public will not stand for it and neither will this Government.

“Often those travelling to the UK illegally are sold a lie by the people-smuggling gangs that they will be able to live and work freely in this country, when in reality they end up facing squalid living conditions, minimal pay and inhumane working hours.

“We are surging enforcement action against this pull factor, on top of returning 30,000 people with no right to be here and tightening the law through our Plan for Change.”

Home Office director of enforcement, compliance and crime, Eddy Montgomery, said: “This next step of co-ordinated activity will target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK.

“That means if you are found to be working with no legal right to do so, we will use the full force of powers available to us to disrupt and stop this abuse. There will be no place to hide.”

Deliveroo has said the firm takes a “zero tolerance approach” to abuse on the platform and that despite measures put in place over the last year, “criminals continue to seek new ways to abuse the system”.

Fraudulent accounts

An Uber Eats spokesperson has said they will continue to invest in tools to detect illegal work and remove fraudulent accounts, while Just Eat says it is committed to strengthening safeguards “in response to these complex and evolving challenges.”

Responding to the announcement, Mr Philp said: “It shouldn’t take a visit to an asylum hotel by me as shadow home secretary to shame the Government into action.”

He added: “The Government should investigate if there is wrongdoing by the delivery platforms and if there is a case to answer, they should be prosecuted.

“This is a very serious issue because illegal working is a pull factor for illegal immigration into the UK – people smugglers actually advertise it.”

Mr Philp also said women and girls were being put at risk because deliveries were being made to their homes by people “from nationalities we know have very high rates of sex offending”, without specifying which nationalities he was referring to.