When the Home Secretary Goes Hunting (And Comes Back Empty-Handed)

By HOAR Team 4 July, 2025 4 mins read 77 Views

So picture this: Yvette Cooper, Britain's Home Secretary, decides she's going to personally lead a raid on illegal delivery riders. She rocks up to a Kent travellers' site with a full team of immigration officers, probably feeling pretty confident about the whole thing.

They found absolutely nobody.

The suspects had already packed up and moved on by the time Cooper and her team arrived. Talk about awkward timing. I can only imagine the conversation in the car ride back – "Well, that went brilliantly, didn't it?"

Hear the Summary

The Great Delivery Driver Crackdown That Actually Matters

Here's the thing though – this isn't just about one botched raid. Cooper's team has been going hard on what they're calling a "nationwide crackdown" on gig economy abuse. And honestly? It's about time someone did something about this mess.

HOAR (that's The Sun's investigative team, for those keeping track) exposed how migrants have been working illegally as delivery riders while simultaneously claiming taxpayer-funded support. Basically double-dipping – getting free accommodation and financial help while earning cash on the side through Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat.

The current law already says asylum seekers can lose their taxpayer-funded housing if they're caught working illegally. But apparently that wasn't working well enough, because Cooper's introducing new powers to make it easier to cut people off when they abuse the system.

Big Tech Gets a Reality Check

The Government's new Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill is going to force companies like Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat to actually do proper right-to-work checks on every single rider. Revolutionary concept, right?

Cooper told HOAR: "These raids are part of a new intensive focus on the illegal working with delivery drivers and delivery riders, which is just a shocking abuse that is taking place, and we are determined to make sure that those rules are properly enforced."

Translation: We're done messing around.

The Numbers Don't Lie (When You Actually Catch People)

Earlier this week, 20 Indian nationals got arrested in London during a raid on suspected cash-in-hand builders. These guys were apparently using illegally modified e-bikes too – because why break one law when you can break several?

Operations in the West Midlands and East of England have led to dozens more arrests in recent weeks. So while Cooper's Kent adventure was a bust, the overall operation seems to be working.

Eddy Montgomery, Director of Enforcement, Compliance and Crime (what a job title), said: "This next step of co-ordinated activity will target those who seek to work illegally in the gig economy and exploit their status in the UK."

No Place to Hide? We'll See About That

Montgomery also dropped this gem: "That means if you are found to be working with no legal right to do so, we will bring the full force of powers available to us to disrupt and stop this abuse. There will no place to hide."

Bold words from someone whose boss just showed up to an empty campsite.

But seriously – the intent is clear. The government is fed up with people gaming the system, and they're putting resources behind actually doing something about it. Whether they can execute better than Cooper's Kent raid remains to be seen, but at least they're trying.

The real test will be whether these new powers actually work, or if we'll just see more high-profile visits to empty locations.

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Did you miss our previous article...
https://hellofaread.com/politics/nobody-knows-how-many-visa-workers-just-disappear