More migrants making false domestic abuse claims, minister tells MPs

Home Office minister Jess Phillips has told MPs there are a growing number of cases of migrants making false allegations that they have been the victims of domestic abuse.

Phillips told MPs on the home affairs committee that false claims of domestic abuse had become noticeably more common in the past five years and she had asked officials to look into it when she was made a minister in 2024.

She suggested that the Home Office could raise the bar of evidence required to help weed out fake claims.

"Some of the evidential thresholds that have been used in the past - for example support organisations saying that you have been a victim and you have used their services - I think that needs to be incredibly tight on those organisations that are trusted [to do that]," she said.

The Birmingham Yardley MP also told the committee there needed to be more training, including for police officers, that this was a "tactic in the field".

In response to questions from Conservative MP for Keighley and Ilkley, Robbie Moore, who has previously raised the issue in Parliament, the minister said that she had seen a rise in "claim and counterclaim" in the field of domestic abuse.

"So a woman comes forward, says she's been a victim of domestic abuse, a man comes forward and says he's been the victim of domestic abuse," she explained.

She told the MPs it almost felt like all perpetrators of domestic abuse had "one massive Whats App group" where they learn the "current thing to do" to cheat the system.

Under a government scheme, migrants who are victims of domestic abuse and who are in the country on a visa sponsored by their partner can apply for a fast-track route to permanent residency, known as indefinite leave to remain.

This was created because genuine victims otherwise found themselves having to choose between remaining with an abusive partner or leaving the country.

The number of people using the route has significantly increased in recent years, rising by 50% in two years to more than 5,500 claims a year, according to figures obtained by the BBC.

"I have seen a growing number of cases that you are referring to and also raised the issue with the Home Office," Phillips told the committee.

"However, I have seen thousands more of those cases be completely and utterly legitimate."

She said that more needed to be done to prevent false claims but cautioned that it was important that this did not adversely affect genuine victims.

"Nobody would want to see that woman have to jump through many hoops to get away from being raped or being held down until she was pregnant which are cases that I have seen," she said.

"You have to make it so that the evidential bar is a fair one that stops the issue that you are talking about but allows people with very little recourse to the law actually to be kept safe from terrible perpetrators of some of the worst crimes I have seen.

"That is the absolute tension that has to be worked on and that is what the Home Office has been working to do."

Robbie Moore told MPs the mother of one of his constituents had lost her job as a teacher because of a false allegation of domestic abuse made against her.

Phillips said people who make false allegations "should be held accountable".

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