Home Office spent record £5.38bn on asylum over past year

Published

8 months ago

November 29, 2024

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The Home Office spent a record £5.38bn over the last year on asylum – more than a third higher than the previous year.

Figures released on Thursday showed spending on asylum rose by £1.43bn in the 2023/24 financial year to £5.38bn – 36% higher than in 2022/24 when £3.95bn was spent.

The latest figure, covering the Conservatives’ final year in government, is the highest amount since comparable data began in 2010/11.

It is more than four times the equivalent figure for 2020/21 (£1.34bn) and nearly 12 times the total a decade ago in 2013/14 when it was £450m.

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New data has also found the number of asylum claimants living in hotels has increased since Labour came into power in July.

The Home Office costs cover all its spending on asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation for asylum seekers, plus wider staffing and other related migration and border activity.

It does not include the cost of operations responding to Channel crossings and intercepting migrants as they make the journey to the UK.

However, the data suggests most migrants entering the UK on small boats do then end up in the asylum system.

Since Labour came into power, 19,988 people have crossed the Channel on small boats to get to the UK illegally.

The latest asylum spending data is from when the Conservatives were in power and comes as further data revealed net migration to the UK fell by 20% in the year to June 2024 from a record 906,000 the year before.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) found net migration – the difference been people immigrating and emigrating – stands at an estimated 728,000.

Sir Keir Starmer said his party had inherited an “utter mess” from the Tories as he accused them of reforming policies to “liberalise immigration” and having “lost control of the borders”.

He said the government was “taking a different approach” by cracking down on any abuse of visa routes, setting out a plan to reduce immigration and “smash the gangs” taking people across the Channel.

The prime minister said the cost of processing asylum claims needs to be brought down, as does the use of hotels.

He said the government has redeployed 1,000 Home Office staff to process asylum claims, and said his government has returned 9,600 asylum seekers since July.

Number of asylum seekers in hotels soars

New Home Office data has also revealed 106,181 asylum claimants were in accommodation at the end of September. That is an increase of 9,539 from May this year.

Of those 106,181 asylum seekers, 35,651 were being housed temporarily in hotels due to lack of other accommodation at the end of September, up by 6,066 from 29,585 at the end of June.

It is the first quarterly rise for a year, although the figure is still some way below the recent peak of 56,042 at the end of September 2023.

Labour promised to close asylum hotels in their manifesto, but border security minister Dame Angela Eagle last week said more asylum hotels have opened since the party came into power.

She told parliament there are currently 220 hotels in use for asylum seekers, with seven having shut since July – but 14 more have opened.

Dame Angela said the reason was the situation left by the Conservatives, with 116,000 asylum seekers “stuck in a backlog” of more than two years when Labour came into power in July.

She said the system “ground to a standstill” because the Tories were busy pursuing the Rwanda policy “which was doomed to failure”.

The minister said Labour did not commit “to close all asylum hotels within four months”.

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South Korean court clears Wemade ex-CEO in Wemix manipulation case

Published

2 hours ago

July 15, 2025

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South Korean court clears Wemade ex-CEO in Wemix manipulation case

After nearly a year of legal proceedings, a South Korean court acquitted former Wemade CEO Jang Hyun-guk of market manipulation charges.

Politics

Is there £15bn of wiggle room in Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules?

Published

3 hours ago

July 15, 2025

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Is there £15bn of wiggle room in Rachel Reeves's fiscal rules?

Are Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules quite as iron clad as she insists?

How tough is her armour really? And is there actually scope for some change, some loosening to avoid big tax hikes in the autumn?

We’ve had a bit of clarity early this morning – and that’s a question we discuss on the Politics at Sam and Anne’s podcast today.

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And tens of billions of pounds of borrowing depends on the answer – which still feels intriguingly opaque.

You might think you know what the fiscal rules are. And you might think you know they’re not negotiable.

For instance, the main fiscal rule says that from 2029-30, the government’s day-to-day spending needs to be in surplus – i.e. rely on taxation alone, not borrowing.

And Rachel Reeves has been clear – that’s not going to change, and there’s no disputing this.

But when the government announced its fiscal rules in October, it actually published a 19-page document – a “charter” – alongside this.

And this contains all sorts of notes and caveats. And it’s slightly unclear which are subject to the “iron clad” promise – and which aren’t.

There’s one part of that document coming into focus – with sources telling me that it could get changed.

And it’s this – a little-known buffer built into the rules.

It’s outlined in paragraph 3.6 on page four of the Charter for Budget Responsibility.

This says that from spring 2027, if the OBR forecasts that she still actually has a deficit of up to 0.5% of GDP in three years, she will still be judged to be within the rules.

In other words, if in spring 2027 she’s judged to have missed her fiscal rules by perhaps as much as £15bn, that’s fine.

Now there’s a caveat – this exemption only applies, providing at the following budget the chancellor reduces that deficit back to zero.

But still, it’s potentially helpful wiggle room.

This help – this buffer – for Reeves doesn’t apply today, or for the next couple of years – it only kicks in from the spring of 2027.

But I’m being told by a source that some of this might change and the ability to use this wiggle room could be brought forward to this year. Could she give herself a get out of jail card?

The chancellor could gamble that few people would notice this technical change, and it might avoid politically catastrophic tax hikes – but only if the markets accept it will mean higher borrowing than planned.

But the question is – has Rachel Reeves ruled this out by saying her fiscal rules are iron clad or not?

Or to put it another way… is the whole of the 19-page Charter for Budget Responsibility “iron clad” and untouchable, or just the rules themselves?

And what counts as “rules” and are therefore untouchable, and what could fall outside and could still be changed?

I’ve been pressing the Treasury for a statement.

And this morning, they issued one.

A spokesman said: “The fiscal rules as set out in the Charter for Budget Responsibility are iron clad, and non-negotiable, as are the definition of the rules set out in the document itself.”

So that sounds clear – but what is a definition of the rule? Does it include this 0.5% of GDP buffer zone?

The Treasury does concede that not everything in the charter is untouchable – including the role and remit of the OBR, and the requirements for it to publish a specific list of fiscal metrics.

But does that include that key bit? Which bits can Reeves still tinker with?

I’m still unsure that change has been ruled out.

Politics

LA sheriff deputies admit to helping crypto ‘Godfather’ extort victims

Published

4 hours ago

July 15, 2025

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LA sheriff deputies admit to helping crypto ‘Godfather’ extort victims

The Justice Department says two LA Sheriff deputies admitted to helping extort victims, including for a local crypto mogul, while working their private security side hustles.