New Editor at Free Movement

Sonia Lenegan has decided to move on as Editor of Free Movement with effect from 28 January 2026. 

Sonia has done an incredible job in her time here. She has published or republished an article every single day other than holidays, many of which she has written herself, often at very short notice. Digesting, analysing and informing others about the absolute sh*tshow that has been immigration law and policy under the last government and now the current one too is no mean feat. Her heroic coverage of the various quarterly immigration statistics, the passage through Parliament of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 and, more recently, the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 have been invaluable. 

The quantity and the quality of Sonia’s output is reflected in the increased readership we’ve seen on Free Movement. Google Analytics tells us that page views in 2025 are up to 8 million, an increase of 20% on the previous year. All the while Sonia has also been writing the weekly newsletter and recording the monthly podcast. She will be much missed and we all wish Sonia well.

Jasmine Quiller-Doust will be taking over as the new Editor. Jasmine has been the Training Manager at Free Movement since 2023 and before that practiced as an immigration solicitor at a small firm. She also co-founded the refugee support charity Samos Volunteers where she worked for a number of years. If you have attended any of our webinars or live courses or read any of our training materials, you will be familiar with Jasmine’s work. If you have ever delivered training for Free Movement you will know how thoughtful and well-organised she is.

Our plan is to adapt the way the Editor role works. Jasmine will not personally be writing for Free Movement as much as Sonia has been. Instead, she will focus on commissioning and editing articles; a more traditional editor role, essentially. To that end we soon hope to be recruiting a few further regular contributors and we will look at whether it is feasible to appoint correspondents for particular topics. I will also return to writing a bit more regularly. And you may also see Sonia’s name on some future articles too.

Rachel Whickman will be moving to the Training Manager role to replace Jasmine and we will be recruiting a new assistant in the New Year.

As has always been the case when there has been a change of Editor here — from me to CJ to Sonia and now to Jasmine — the style of our output will change a little. Our mission will continue to be to make good quality and clear information available to all those affected by immigration control: migrants themselves, their families, their lawyers and their judges. We have been doing it for 18 years now and we will continue to do that through the main blog, our training materials, live training, social media posts, newsletter and podcast. And we will continue to strive to improve the way we do things and experiment with new ideas.