Downing Street has refused to back calls by MPs to introduce a bespoke scheme aimed at resettling refugees from Gaza in the UK.
A total of 67 parliamentarians – including 35 Labour MPs from across different wings of the party –have written to the Home Office urging it to introduce an arrangement similar to the Ukraine Family Scheme.
The scheme, which operated shortly after Russia’s invasion in 2022, received 108,300 applications before it closed last year. It allowed Ukrainian nationals to join family members or extend their stay in the UK.
Successful applicants were allowed to live, work and study in the UK, as well as to have access to public funds for up to three years. A similar programme was also implemented for Hongkongers in the wake of an anti-democracy crackdown by the Chinese-backed government.
According to Sky News, the letter – signed by Labour figures including Afzal Khan, Clive Lewis and Stella Creasy – urged Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to allow Palestinians to be reunited “with their loved ones in the UK until it is safe to return".
"Just as the UK opened its doors to those fleeing persecution in Ukraine and Hong Kong, we believe that the same generosity should be extended to Palestinian families," it added.
Asked about whether the government would back the MPs’ proposal, a Downing Street spokesperson declined to do so and said: “There are a range of routes available for Palestinians who wish to join family members in the UK.”
They added: “But more broadly, as has been our consistent position, we want to see an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages still cruelly detained by Hamas, protection of civilians and much more aid entering Gaza.”
However, the proposal – which was also supported by Green Party MPs, the five pro-Gaza independents (including Jeremy Corbyn) and Lib Dems Tim Farron and Layla Moran – was met with robust criticism from both the Conservatives and Reform UK.
West Suffolk MP Nick Timothy told the JC that the idea of any resettlement scheme in the UK for Gazans would be “completely unacceptable”.
The former chief-of-staff to Theresa May, added: “We cannot use our immigration system to try to solve the whole world’s ills. We need to radically reduce immigration and remove far more people – those who have committed crimes, are living off benefits or have come to the end of their visas – not adding yet more to the numbers coming here.”
Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice went further, saying that not “a single Gazan should be given refuge in the UK”.
“We should ask ourselves why other Arab nations do not want to take any Gazans? Answer is because they fear they are brainwashed by Hamas hatred, and they do not want to import those attitudes and people; we should take the hint and adopt a similar line,” he said, adding: “We have enough antisemitism problems already in the UK without importing more.”
A 2024 survey from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found that 97 per cent of those living in Gaza and the West Bank harbour “antisemitic attitudes”.
But the topic of immigration to the UK from Gaza has already generated headlines this year.
In February, both the prime minister and opposition leader Kemi Badenoch hit out at the decision by a judge to allow a Palestinian family to live in the UK despite the fact that they had applied through the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Judge Hugo Norton-Taylor said that the family were in an “extreme and life threatening” situation and, despite the fact that the family were refused by a lower-tier immigration tribunal, he overturned that ruling citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, last month, as part of measures unveiled in the immigration white paper, the government said it wanted to close the loophole that allowed the family to be granted asylum.
The white paper said that the government would bring in legislation to “clarify Article 8 rules and set out how they should apply in different immigration routes so that fewer cases are treated as ‘exceptional’,” as well as setting out “when and how a person can genuinely make a claim on the basis of exceptional circumstances”.
