The number of people awaiting an initial decision has actual gone up slightly since Labour came into power, new figures reveal.
Yvette Cooper and PM Sir Keir Starmer (Image: GETTY)
Migrants could be housed in hotels for up to three more years due to the asylum backlog, an insider has claimed, dealing a massive blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s fledgling Government.
Since coming into office, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and other ministers have come to realise that clearing the backlog will take longer than initially hoped, the Times reported – with the number of people waiting for an initial decision actually increasing slightly in the three months since the election.
The party had promised to resolve the issue and “end asylum hotels,” but a Whitehall source described the situation as “much worse than we thought.”
They added: “It’s going to take much longer to clear than we anticipated. It certainly won’t be cleared within a year.”
A Labour source once again sought to blame the previous Government, insisting: “We’ve inherited a completely failed immigration system from the Tories, including them spending over £700 million on Rwanda and other gimmicks that didn’t work.
More migrants arrive in Kent after being rescued in the Channel (Image: Getty)
“We are working on clearing the backlog they left behind – they clearly did nothing in the months leading up to the election.
“The numbers speak for themselves.”
Home Office figures released in August showed that 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024.
The figure marks a 32 percent decrease from 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
However, the latest total was slightly up from 118,329 at the end of March, indicating a rise in the last three months of the 12-month period.
Earlier this month, Ms Cooper told broadcasters that the Government was making progress on reducing the asylum backlog and deporting those with no right to remain in the UK, “so that we can end these very costly asylum hotels.”
The Labour manifesto, released ahead of the general election, pledged to “restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly.”
It stated: “We will hire additional caseworkers to clear the Conservatives’ backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.”