Factcheck: Have 35,000 people been ‘detained and removed’ from the UK under Labour?

Full Fact, the UK’s largest fact-checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.

In a recent post on X, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood MP claimed that the government “has detained and removed over 35,000 people with no right to be here”.

The post included footage showing several people being escorted onto buses or aircraft by what appear to be immigration enforcement officers.

However, the Government’s own data shows the majority of those included in this figure were not both “detained and removed”, but instead left the UK voluntarily—in some cases without the Government’s involvement or knowledge.

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Home Office statistics

According to Home Office statistics, just over 35,000 immigration returns took place during Labour’s first year in government (July 5 2024 to July 4 2025). But only 9,115 of these were “enforced returns” —the category of return which includes people who were removed from detention.

The remaining 25,937 were “voluntary returns”, meaning people who were liable for removal or under immigration control but left the UK of their own accord, sometimes with Home Office support. This category also includes “other verified returns”—people who left the UK without informing the Home Office.

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Immigration bail

Some people who have been detained can subsequently apply to voluntarily leave the UK, in which case they may be granted immigration bail ahead of their departure. People who agree to leave voluntarily from detention are included under “enforced returns”, according to the Home Office.

We don’t know exactly how many of the returns carried out between July 5 2024 and July 4 2025 were from detention, but Home Office data shows that in the year ending June 2025 (broadly though not entirely overlapping Labour’s first year in office) there were a total of 5,782 enforced removals from detention and 2,833 other returns from detention.

When we spoke to the Home Office, they denied the claim was misleading. We have written to the department to ask for further clarification.