Rishi Sunak’s claim to have cleared asylum backlog branded ‘misleading’

Published

6 months ago

January 2, 2024

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The government is claiming victory in clearing the backlog of asylum claims – but that has been described as “misleading” as thousands are still waiting for a final decision.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged in December 2022 that he would “abolish” the legacy backlog of asylum claims made before 28 June of that year, with the Home Office being given the target of the end of 2023.

On Monday, the department said the pledge had been “delivered”, having processed more than 112,000 asylum claims overall in 2023.

There were more than 92,000 asylum claims made before 28 June 2022 requiring a decision, but Labour has said the government’s claim that all of those cases have been cleared is “false”.

The Home Office said on Monday that all cases in the legacy backlog have been reviewed, but added that “4,500 complex cases have been highlighted that require additional checks or investigation for a final decision to be made”.

Such cases typically involve “asylum seekers presenting as children – where age verification is taking place; those with serious medical issues; or those with suspected past convictions, where checks may reveal criminality that would bar asylum”, the department added.

It is understood that the Home Office has processed about 25,200 newer asylum claims, on top of the 86,800 decisions in legacy cases, which means the provisional number of total decisions made overall in the year reaches 112,000.

As many decisions as possible were made in the legacy backlog, according to officials, and the outstanding cases are due to a refusal to compromise security.

They pointed to efforts to clear some of the newer cases as evidence of the department’s commitment to tackling the overall backlog.

The prime minister said in a statement that the department’s efforts are “saving the taxpayer millions of pounds in expensive hotel costs, reducing strain on public services and ensuring the most vulnerable receive the right support”.

However, the CEO of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, said it is “misleading for the government to claim that the legacy backlog has been cleared as there are thousands still waiting for a decision”.

“After mismanaging the asylum system for so many years the government was right to clear the backlog but was wrong to do it in a way that has failed to see the face behind the case and instead has treated people simply as statistics rather than with the care and compassion they deserve,” he added.

Labour’s shadow immigration minister also accused the government of making “false” claims about clearing the asylum backlog.

Stephen Kinnock said: “The asylum backlog has rocketed to 165,000 under the Tories – eight times higher than when Labour left office – and no slicing or renaming the figures can disguise that fact.

“Meanwhile Rishi Sunak’s promise made a year ago to end asylum hotel use has been disastrously broken – with a 20% increase to 56,000, costing the British taxpayer more than £2bn a year.

“This is yet more evidence of an asylum system broken by the Conservatives.”

The government’s announcement comes after months of fears that the prime minister’s target would not be achieved.

In February last year, the Home Office said thousands of asylum seekers would be sent questionnaires which could be used to speed up a decision on their claims, and about 12,000 people from Afghanistan, Syria, Eritrea, Libya and Yemen, who had applied for asylum in the UK and were waiting for a decision, were understood to be eligible under the policy.

In June, the National Audit Office (NAO) said efforts to clear the backlog needed to significantly increase to clear the backlog and questioned whether the plans were sustainable.

The spending watchdog also estimated £3.6bn was spent on asylum support in 2022-23, which amounted to almost double the previous year.

The Home Office said more caseworkers had been tasked with processing applications, which was “tripling productivity to ensure more illegal migrants are returned to their country of origin, quicker”.

But the department’s top civil servant, Sir Matthew Rycroft, revealed in a letter to MPs that just 1,182 migrants who had crossed the Channel had been returned to their home country since 2020, out of a total of more than 111,800 who arrived in that time period.

The majority of those returned were from Albania, with whom the UK has a returns agreement.

In an appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee in December, the prime minister was unable to say when the remaining overall backlog of asylum claims would be cleared, which continued to rise and stood at 91,076 as of the end of November, not including legacy cases.

Politics

Scale of gambling scandal for Tories is different magnitude to Labour’s issue

Published

3 hours ago

June 26, 2024

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Scale of gambling scandal for Tories is different magnitude to Labour's issue

After days of furore directed at Rishi Sunak for the election betting scandal, now a Labour candidate is under investigation by the Gambling Commission for his own betting activity – and is immediately suspended.

Is this an equaliser in one of the grubbiest electoral sagas of recent elections? Quite possibly not.

There is no doubting the utter dismay in Labour HQ at the revelation that they too have a candidate caught up in the betting scandal.

Politics live: Labour to return £100k donation to suspended candidate

It lends itself to the easy narrative that there’s a plague on all politicians’ houses – everyone as bad as each other.

However, if the facts are as presented, the scale of the challenge for the Tories is of a different order of magnitude to that now facing Labour.

Labour’s Kevin Craig was suspended immediately after the party was informed by the Gambling Commission of the probe.

We are told that he placed a bet – not on the election date, but that he would lose his race in a general election.

He is certainly guilty of gross stupidity, as he admitted in a statement on Tuesday evening.

However, if this scenario is as presented, it is hard to see an allegation being mounted that he had insider intelligence on the race – unless it can be proved he was deliberately setting out to lose.

An under-pressure Gambling Commission will investigate every candidate’s name on the spreadsheet from gambling companies of those who placed bets – but it is unclear from available facts where this will go.

The Tory betting saga, however, is more complicated and now on its 13th day.

It was almost two weeks ago that Craig Williams – Rishi Sunak’s closest parliamentary aide and former Montgomeryshire MP – admitted he had placed a bet on the election date – a date he might have known before the public at large.

He denies he committed any offence, and remains under investigation.

Laura Saunders, standing for the Tories just south in Bristol North West, has also been suspended for putting a bet on the date when her partner worked in Conservative headquarters on the election.

For most of that time, Mr Sunak has been insisting he could not suspend either candidate because of the ongoing probe by the Gambling Commission.

Ministers, as well as opponents, weighed in.

And on Tuesday he reversed that decision under that pressure.

This means there are questions about the prime minister’s own judgement and unwillingness to act on top of questions about the behaviour of those closest to him.

This story has had massive cut through with the public, topping the charts for any news story in the UK – according to YouGov’s AI news tracker – for the last four days.

There is dismay from the cabinet downwards.

Labour’s own problems have undermined their own ability to go on the attack. But it is not clear that voters will see the two issues on the same scale.

The full list of the candidates running for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich is:

Charlie Caiger, independent;
Tony Gould, Reform UK;
Mike Hallatt, independent;
Brett Alistair Mickelburgh, Lib Dems;
Dan Pratt, Greens;
Patrick Spencer, Conservatives.

The full list of candidates for Bristol North West is:

Caroline Gooch, Lib Dems;
Darren Jones, Labour;
Scarlett O’Connor, Reform UK;
Mary Page, Green Party;
Ben Smith, SDP.

The full list of candidates for Montgomeryshire and Glyndwr is:

Jeremy Brignell-Thorp, Green Party;
Oliver Lewis, Reform UK;
Glyn Preston, Lib Dems;
Elwyn Vaughan, Plaid Cymru;
Steve Witherden, Labour.

Politics

US politicians who may be spinning the news with crypto

Published

11 hours ago

June 25, 2024

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US politicians who may be spinning the news with crypto

Donald Trump seems to have doubled down on digital assets after he was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York.

Politics

Four men arrested at Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire home

Published

12 hours ago

June 25, 2024

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Four men arrested at Rishi Sunak's North Yorkshire home

Four men have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass in the grounds of the prime minister’s home, police have confirmed.

The incident took place at Rishi Sunak’s constituency address in Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, while he was attending events in London to mark the Japanese state visit.

A police statement said officers were “with the four men within one minute of them entering the grounds”.

Politics live: Labour to return £100k donation to suspended candidate

The arrests are connected to a protest by campaigners from Youth Demand. It describes itself as a group of young people who want “the Tories and the Labour Party commit to a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to stop all new oil and gas licences”.

A spokesperson for the group said three of those arrested were taking part in the demonstration, while the fourth person was an independent photographer.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “They were detained at around 12.40pm before being escorted off the property and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

“The men, aged 52 from London, 43 from Bolton, 21 from Manchester, and 20 from Chichester, remain in police custody for questioning and enquiries are ongoing.”

It comes after a separate incident last summer, when protesters scaled the roof of Mr Sunak’s home.

They held up banners which said “NO NEW OIL” and draped the building in fabric. It happened while the prime minister and his family were away on holiday in California.

Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Michael Grant, 64, and Mathieu Soete, 38, have pleaded not guilty to criminal damage, with a two-day trial set to take place in July.