The UK’s asylum backlog is four-and-a-half times higher than it was when the Tories took over, damning figures show.
Rishi Sunak has been accused of “failing to deliver” as he attempts to put migration at the heart of his general election campaign. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reveal 86,460 asylum cases were waiting an initial decision at the end of March.
This compares to 18,954 in June 2010, soon after the Tories compared to power, according to the UK Statistics Authority. The ONS figures show 118,329 people are caught up in the asylum backlog.
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: “No matter how the Conservatives try to twist the truth, the asylum backlog remains sky-high. There are still 118,329 people waiting for an initial decision on their asylum claim – stuck in limbo and forced to rely on government funds.
“Rishi Sunak has failed to deliver on his promise to tackle the asylum backlog, just like he failed to stop the dangerous Channel crossings. The British people deserve a Government that can finally implement a compassionate, effective asylum system after years of Conservative mismanagement.”
It comes after the PM admitted deportation flights to Rwanda won’t take off before the election. Meanwhile ONS figures show that net migration – the difference between people leaving and arriving in the UK – was estimated at 685,000 last year. In 2019 the Tories pledged to bring this figure down – when it stood at 230,000.
The latest figure is below the record 764,000 in 2022. The Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford said net migration “remained at unusually high levels”.
Provisional Home Office figures to April 2024, published on Wednesday, suggest a fall in visa applications from overseas students and foreign care workers. But the number of skilled worker visa applications appears to have risen by 50% in the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2023.
Labour Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These figures show the total Tory chaos and failure on immigration as net migration has more than trebled since Rishi Sunak and his party promised to get it down at the last election.
“14 years of Conservative failure on both the economy and immigration has led to around a 50 per cent increase in work migration in the last year alone because they have disastrously failed to tackle skills shortages. The Tories can’t even manage to clean up their own chaos.”
But Home Secretary James Cleverly claimed the figures indicated the country is moving in the right direction. He said: “The latest migration statistics show a 10 per cent fall in net migration last year, with visa applications down 25 per cent so far in 2024. This shows the plan under Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives is working but there is more to do. That is why we must stick to the plan, not go back to square one.”