(London, February 4, 2026) - The Labour government in the UK, during its first full year in authority has carried out punitive immigration policies that have emboldened the far right, an authoritarian crackdown on protest rights, and a failure to adequately address an ongoing and worsening cost of living crisis, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2026.

"What we witnessed in 2025 was a government backsliding on human rights at an alarming rate," said Yasmine Ahmed, UK director at Human Rights Watch. "This government promised the rule of law would be central to its administration, but from restrictions on protest at home to its foreign policy on Gaza, it feels like human rights are quickly put on the chopping block if it proves politically expedient."

In the 529-page World Report 2026, its 36th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 100 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Philippe Bolopion writes that breaking the authoritarian wave sweeping the world is the challenge of a generation. With the human rights system under unprecedented threat from the Trump administration and other global powers, Bolopion calls on rights-respecting democracies and civil society to build a strategic alliance to defend fundamental freedoms. 

The UK government should respect its domestic and international obligations to uphold human rights and repeal or amend legislation that poses a direct threat to the rights of people both at home and abroad.

"I think a lot of people are shocked by the authoritarian direction this government has taken," Ahmed said "Not only is it cut-and-pasting some of the worst and most regressive policies of the previous administration, but in areas like protest rights it is going even further. Do Labour MPs want their legacy in government to be of a party that made Britain a less democratic, less free country? I very much doubt it, and I hope they change course in 2026."

Source: Human Rights Watch