lofthouse
Wednesday 3rd January 2024 10:13pm
Nowhere
13,894 posts
New year, same old Tory lies
Not managed to successfully complete one of your pledges to the country? No problems, just lie through your f**king teeth and hope nobody notices
"Rishi Sunak's claim that ministers have "cleared" the asylum backlog is being investigated by the official statistics watchdog after allegations it is a "barefaced lie".
The UK Statistics Authority is looking into the Government's announcement that it has cleared a "legacy" backlog of applications, after figures showed more than 4,500 of these are still waiting an initial decision.
Nearly 100,000 asylum seekers are still waiting for an initial decision despite Tory brags of clearing the backlog. Latest Home Office figures show the UK's backlog stood at a massive 98,599 at the end of 2023 - 16 times higher than when the Conservatives took power and up from 91,076 in November.
Home Secretary James Cleverly also faces uncomfortable questions about more than 17,000 people who vanished after withdrawing their applications. He was also forced to admit that officials don't know where people who withdraw applications go - but vowed to "go looking for them"