Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has ordered a nationwide immigration "enforcement crackdown" aimed at tackling illegal working in the gig economy.

Officers will conduct checks in hotspots across the country, specifically targeting asylum seekers suspected of working as delivery riders without permission.

This initiative follows discussions with ministers, leading Deliveroo, Uber Eats, and Just Eat to announce they will ramp up facial verification and fraud checks in the coming months.

Last week the shadow home secretary, Chris Philp, claimed in a post on X to have found evidence of people working illegally for the food delivery firms during a visit to a hotel used to house asylum seekers.

On Saturday, the Home Office said anyone caught “flagrantly abusing the system in this way” will face having state support discontinued, whether entitlement to accommodation or payments.