The question produced a No victory — 344 votes to Yes’s 234 — but the sharper story was anxiety about what the waiting period might incentivise. The winning side’s best-rated case warned that work permits could become “a massive pull factor”, while other voices pressed for detention, vetting and removal.
No voters argued that asylum is protection, not employment: “Asylum is not a fast-track work visa.” Even a more moderate objection said the existing permission after six months was sufficient, while several others reduced the answer to a demand that claims be decided “much more quickly”.
Yes voters made a practical, conditional case rather than an open-door one. The floor’s strongest Yes arguments proposed “controlled access to work with strict conditions”, with legal employment and tax payments replacing dependence, illegal work and marginalisation; one said it would let applicants “help pay their own way”. The clash was partly over whether identity checks and restrictions could manage the risk, and partly over whether legal routes already exist at all.
The debate sat inside the wider argument over immigration control and the cost of supporting people while decisions are delayed. Yet the room was not wholly of one mind: one No voter said they were “in favour of immigration” but still opposed work because it might weaken pressure for a faster system, while Yes voters likewise demanded that people be granted protection or returned without delay.
The result was a firm No, but the chamber’s most consistent demand was not simply exclusion: it was a quicker, more decisive asylum process.
34 Opinions
Controlled access to work with strict conditions is better than forcing people who are allowed to remain in the UK for years to depend entirely on the taxpayer.
If they have not been given the right to remain, not only should they not be given the right to work, those here illegally should not be roaming around freely. Allowing them to work legitimises their claim and, it could be argued, prejudices any process in their favour.
All illegals should never be allowed to settle in the UK as they are criminals. So obviously they don't get to work as they should be detained until deportation. Genuine asylum seekers are looked after extremely well until they are processed then it's deportation or Universal Credit. 90% of them are bogus and should never be allowed to remain.
Very difficult to answer just yes or no. First and foremost, asylum is supposed to be emergency protection from persecution, not an alternative route for economic migration. Handing out work permits to anyone who arrives while their claim drags on creates a massive pull factor for human trafficking gangs selling UK jobs. However, letting applicants work after a few months slashes state support costs, fills vacancies, and generates tax revenue. It's a double-edged sword.
Teaching and training could be provided, at larger accommodation facilities, to use waiting time productively. Paid work would be too strong an incentive to chance a bogus claim and delay a final decision.
YES For two reasons. But they must be able to prove their identity so they can be issued a temporarily NI number 1st. A) it means they can help pay their own way whilst they're waiting for a decision. If they are allowed to stay they have a job already. B) as they've identified themselves, if they then fail to get refugee status it's easier to remove them. B)
No, they shouldn't work and they shouldn't be allowed into public until properly vetted, their asylum claims verified and they pass exams on living in modern UK society. Failing any step should ends in deportation.
The claims need to be progressed much more quickly
It's what the majority of immigrants come here to do. As long as the authorities know where they are, and they check in once a week. Better than have them kicking their heels with boredom.
Allowing them to work and pay taxes is a better solution than giving them free housing and subsidies. However the focus should be on rapidly speeding up the asylum process so that people who come here illegally are either granted asylum or deported ASAP.