Rishi Sunak has been slapped down by the official statistics watchdog over his declare the Government has “cleared” the asylum backlog.
The UK Statistics Authority launched an investigation after the PM was accused of a “barefaced lie” over the state of the backlog. Sir Robert Chote, the watchdog’s chairman, has as we speak dominated the “episode may affect public trust” and mentioned it was not stunning “some people may feel misled” by the Government’s announcement.
Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael lodged a criticism with the stats watchdog “to raise concerns about the misrepresentation of asylum backlog figures by the Prime Minister on social media”. He pointed to a tweet by Mr Sunak on January 2 which mentioned: “I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”
But Mr Carmichael identified the “legacy” backlog of purposes had not been cleared, with figures exhibiting greater than 4,500 circumstances had been nonetheless ready an preliminary resolution. Similarly he highlighted that the general backlog of asylum circumstances was at 99,000 – an enormous 16 occasions greater than when the Conservatives took energy.
In response to Mr Carmichael’s letter, Sir Robert mentioned: “The average member of the public is likely to interpret a claim to have ‘cleared a backlog’ – especially when presented without context on social media – as meaning that it has been eliminated entirely, so it is not surprising that the Government’s claim has been greeted with scepticism and that some people may feel misled when these ‘hard cases’ remain in the official estimates of the legacy backlog.
“That mentioned, there could also be a superbly good case for excluding circumstances of this sort from any dedication to get rid of the backlog over the timeframe the Government selected, however this argument was not made on the time the goal was introduced or when it was clarified within the letter to the Home Affairs Committee.”
He emphasised the need for ministers and advisers to “consider carefully about how an affordable individual would interpret a quantitative declare of the type and to seek the advice of the statistical professionals of their division”, adding: “This episode might have an effect on public belief when the Government units targets and broadcasts whether or not they have been met within the different coverage domains.”
While he welcomed the Home Office publishing data on such an “essential coverage space”, he also noted the department did not disclose this at the same time as making the announcement in a press notice to journalists, “which prevented them from having the ability to scrutinise the info when first reporting it”. “This doesn’t assist our expectations round clever transparency, and now we have raised this with the Home Office,” he said.
Responding to Sir Robert’s ruling, Mr Carmichael accused the Tories of “twisting the details”. “Not solely is the Conservative Government celebrating one thing that’s no achievement, they’re twisting the details – as confirmed by the UK Statistics Authority simply as we speak,” he said. “As this letter once more reveals, the Conservatives haven’t cleared the asylum backlog. Thousands of weak persons are nonetheless residing in limbo as they wait for his or her claims to be processed. The British public deserves higher than this.”
Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock said: “Labour wrote to the UK Statistics Authority a yr in the past to complain about Rishi Sunak repeatedly mendacity in regards to the asylum backlog, and he was warned to not do it once more. Yet as soon as once more he has been caught pink handed. The Prime Minister’s dependancy to enjoying quick and unfastened with the details is the behaviour of somebody not match for public workplace. He has not cleared the backlog – there are 100,000 folks nonetheless awaiting a call. He ought to undertake Labour’s backlog clearance plan, and ship the safety partnership we have to cease the boats getting within the water within the first place.”
The Prime Minister has been criticised by the UK Statistics Authority on a variety of events, together with after he claimed the asylum backlog was half what it was when Labour was in workplace. Sir Robert mentioned remarks by Mr Sunak and Tory frontbenchers Sarah Dines and Robert Jenrick “don’t replicate” Home Office figures. He was also reprimanded last month after claiming the Government had reduced debt. Sir Robert said the PM’s assertion “might have undermined belief within the authorities’s use of statistics”.