Immigration expert warns of ‘unsustainable’ crisis as one migrant granted right to stay in UK every single minute

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Rob Bates said the British taxpayer could be facing a bill of 'hundreds of billions of pounds' to accommodate the surge

Immigration expert Rob Bates has warned Britain is facing an “unsustainable” situation amid skyrocketing rates of migrants being granted permanent settlement or British citizenship, at a rate of more than one every minute.

Speaking to GB News, the research director at the Centre for Migration Control said the figures represented the latest consequence of the huge rise in migration following the so-called “Boriswave”.

More than 140,000 people were granted either indefinite leave to remain (ILR) or British citizenship in the three months to June, about one person per minute.

In the 12 months to June 2026, it represented a 24 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest number since 2010.

Mr Bates said the figures should serve as a warning about the long-term consequences of the migration surge.

“It’s a migrant either obtaining ILR or citizenship every single minute,” he said.

“In large part, that will be the foothills of the so-called Boriswave, that period of low wage, low-skilled migration that we saw between 2021 and 2024.

“It’s a 243 per cent increase on individuals getting ILR since 2017.”

He warned that granting settlement could have significant consequences because ILR gives migrants permanent status in the UK and access to public services, subject to the relevant eligibility rules.

“What ILR gives an individual, even if they’re not a British citizen, is access to the welfare state, social housing and the NHS unencumbered,” Mr Bates claimed.

The migration expert said the Government was now facing the consequences of the migration policies introduced in the years following Brexit.

“What we could be risking here if the Labour frontbench continues to drag its heels is a real fiscal conundrum,” he said.

“Some estimates have suggested hundreds of billions of pounds over the course of these individuals’ lifetime.”

Mr Bates also pointed to Home Office projections suggesting that between 1.3 million and 2.2 million people could obtain settlement over the coming years.

“That really, I think, for most people’s minds, is an unsustainable state of affairs,” he said.

Mr Bates argued that the Government needed to act quickly before more migrants from the post-2021 migration surge obtained permanent status.

“The Boriswave has started to obtain indefinite leave to remain,” he said, asking: “Can they really afford to continue to drag their heels?”

“I think it would be a huge, huge problem for the country if these individuals were to be given it in the next couple of years,” Mr Bates said.

“If the Boriswave is allowed to settle, then it will cause huge political problems for Labour.”

The figures come as Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood plans to overhaul the settlement system, with proposals to move towards an “earned settlement” model and increase the standard qualifying period for ILR from five years to ten.