Less than one in five respondents to the UK Home Office's consultation on stricter immigration rules were British citizens, according to official figures. More than 200,000 individuals provided their views on policy changes for indefinite leave to remain, with 73 percent identified as current visa holders.
The Home Office acknowledged that the 18 percent of respondents who identified as British may include spouses and family members of visa holders.
In response to the figures, the Conservative Party stated that migrants with a vested interest in weakening immigration rules would "unsurprisingly" advocate for more lenient policies. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp criticized the government's apparent backtracking on the proposed changes, suggesting it was influenced by responses from immigrants.
The Centre for Migration Control think tank commented that "Our immigration policy is now being decided by those who are not even citizens of this country."
Regarding the ethnic makeup of the respondents, 51 percent identified as Asian or British Asian, while 19 percent identified as White. Black or Black British respondents accounted for 12 percent, and three percent identified as belonging to mixed or multiple ethnic groups.
Chris Philp further criticized the U-turn on the policy, stating it would allow "hundreds of thousands of low-skill care workers stay here forever - getting citizenship and entitlement to full benefits, even though many are fraudulent." He also noted that the Home Secretary acknowledged the cost of this change to be "£10billion."