The Government will respond to the online document as it has hit a crucial threshold of support.
Migrants are crossing the English Channel (Image: Getty)
A major petition calling for a public inquiry into UK migration has hit a major milestone. The online document has garnered more than 65,000 signatures (67,081 at the time of writing). It was set up on Juy 15 by Simon Worley and will close on January 15. On August 23, Parliament confirmed that the Government will respond, as the threshold of 10,000 people pledging their support had been hit. The petition reads: “We call on the Government to launch a full-scale public inquiry into illegal migration in the UK.
“The inquiry should investigate the effectiveness of UK border control, the financial cost on taxpayers, and the deportation system. Thousands of people illegally migrate to the UK each year. We believe this has negatively impacted the UK to a significant extent and resulted in some people feeling unsafe walking the streets. Furthermore, we believe it has brought a great burden onto taxpayers as the Government has had to pay for more support for illegal migrants.”
The petition tells the Government that ‘some people feeling unsafe walking the streets’ (Image: Getty)
It comes as a village held a symbolic independence referendum in protest at plans to house more than 1,000 migrants at a former military base.
The proposal, which would mean 1,256 male asylum seekers moving near Piddington in Oxfordshire, has sparked anger and fear among many village residents.
RNLI volunteers were targeted during protests against small boat arrivals in Portsmouth and Dover earlier this month.
The digital secretary, Lisa Nandy, has told them she will raise online abuse and so-called doxxing in talks with social media platforms as she looks into taking further action to target it.
She added she was “shocked and saddened” after they were labelled “traitors”.
In the first six months of 2026, the number of people arriving in the UK by small boat fell 41% and the number of boats 47% compared to the previous year.
A reduction in demand from migrants and increased law enforcement activity were key contributory factors in the drop in small boat crossings to the UK in the first six months of this year, the The National Crime Agency (NCA) found.
It carried out its own analysis of small boat crossings and released selected extracts on Monday.