Rishi Sunak rapped by watchdog over claim to have ‘cleared’ asylum backlog

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The UK’s statistics watchdog has slammed Rishi Sunak for his repeated claim to have “cleared” the asylum backlog – and warned the assertion might erode belief within the authorities.

Sir Robert Chote, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, additionally mentioned voters could have felt “misled”.

The prime minister was accused of attempting to “cook the books” and a “barefaced lie” over the assertion, made regardless of figures exhibiting practically 100,000 migrants nonetheless ready for a call.

Mr Sunak’s residence secretary James Cleverly later mentioned it was “impossible” to forecast how lengthy it could take to take care of the excellent circumstances.

The authorities mentioned it had met Mr Sunak’s pledge to clear all so-called legacy asylum claims – counted as these submitted earlier than June 2022. But official statistics additionally confirmed that 4,500 of these circumstances had been nonetheless ongoing.

Mr Sunak additionally got here below fireplace for a tweet suggesting the federal government had cleared the complete backlog – as figures confirmed a complete 98,599 asylum claims nonetheless languishing within the system.

And but on January 2 Mr Sunak posted on X, previously Twitter: “I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023. That’s exactly what we’ve done.”

In a letter revealed on Thursday, to Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael who had raised considerations with the watchdog, Sir Robert mentioned: “The common member of the general public is probably going to interpret a claim to have ‘cleared a backlog’ – particularly when introduced with out context on social media – as which means that it has been eradicated fully, so it isn’t stunning that the Government’s claim has been greeted with scepticism and that some folks could really feel misled when these ‘laborious circumstances’ stay within the official estimates of the legacy backlog.”

He added: “This episode may affect public trust when the Government sets targets and announces whether they have been met in the other policy domains. It highlights the need for ministers and advisers to think carefully about how a reasonable person would interpret a quantitative claim of the sort and to consult the statistical professionals in their department.”

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock had accused the PM of selling a “barefaced lie” that was “an insult to the public’s intelligence”.

As the row grew, the claim was denounced as “false” by opposition events, marketing campaign teams and even Fraser Nelson, the editor of Tory bible The Spectator journal, who likened the tweet to that of a “snake oil salesman” and urged the PM’s social media workforce to take the row “as a lesson learned”.