Taxpayers are shelling out almost £15million per day to fund the asylum system.
Home Office figures confirm that spending hit £5.38billion in 2023-24 – most of which went on hotels and other accommodation for asylum seekers.
The bill equates to an average of £14,734,223 every single day, the highest level of spending on record and up by more than a third in a year – annual spending was running at a comparatively modest £450million only a decade ago.
By comparison, Labour’s controversial decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners is projected to save just £1.4billion a year.
The massive extent of asylum spending emerged as separate data revealed a huge surge in general migration levels. Figures from the Office for National Statistics confirmed net migration – the difference between those arriving in Britain and those emigrating – was 2.2million over the past three years, peaking at a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
And the Home Office published data which revealed that just 4,420 small boat migrants have been removed from Britain since the Channel crisis began in 2018.
That amounted to 3 per cent of the 139,500 small boat migrants who had arrived by the end of September this year. Government figures also confirmed the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has risen by more than a fifth since Labour came to power.
The bumper bill does not include the cost of intercepting people crossing the Channel. Pictured are new arrivals earlier this month
Labour ‘s controversial decision to scrap the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners is projected to save just £1.4billion a year
There were 35,361 migrants housed in hotels at the end of September, up 21 per cent on the end of June. The total remains below the peak of just over 56,000 last autumn, however.
Under Labour, the Home Office has begun to re-open asylum hotels previously returned to normal use under the Tories. Ministers concede that although Labour made a manifesto pledge to end the use of hotels, more rooms are required as Channel numbers rise.
There have already been nearly 33,600 arrivals by small boat this year, some 4,000 more than the total number seen last year.
Yesterday’s data also revealed the number of asylum seekers receiving taxpayer-funded support has jumped since Labour took office. The total, which includes those in other types of accommodation such as self-catering, was just over 109,000 – up 8 per cent in three months.
A total of 133,409 asylum seekers were waiting for an initial decision on their claim at the end of September. That’s up 12 per cent from 118,882 at the end of June, but down about a fifth year-on-year.
The Home Office’s figure on asylum costs covers direct cash support and accommodation, plus wider staffing and other related migration and border activity.
But it does not include the cost of operations responding to Channel crossings, as Border Force intercepts migrants making the journey to the UK and delivers them to Dover. The total number of asylum claims lodged in the year to September was 99,790, up one per cent year-on-year.
In other Home Office data on legal migration, also published yesterday, the number of family visas for spouses and other relatives was up 31 per cent across the same period.
The Home Office has spent nearly £5.4billion in a year on asylum cost, including housing asylum seekers in hotels like this one in Greater Manchester
Kemi Badenoch used a major speech last night to insist the Tories would not allow Britain to be treated like a ‘hotel’ for migrants
The number of sponsored study visas fell 19 per cent to just under 393,000 for main applicants, while the number of visas granted to student dependents fell 69 per cent in the year to just under 50,000 in the wake of restrictions brought in by the last Conservative government. The Tories tightened the rules so that only students on research-based post-graduate courses could bring family members with them to Britain.
In the first nine months of the new rules being in force, student dependent visas plummeted 84 per cent to under 18,000.
There were just under 242,000 work visas granted, not including dependants, down 28 per cent on the previous year. But 268,481 foreign nationals were granted British citizenship – up more than 82,000 on the previous 12 months.
So how on earth did they manage to lose over 300,000 people?
The most important question in the wake of yesterday’s immigration data is this: How do you lose more than 300,000 people?
The Office for National Statistics dropped a bombshell into the already heated debate about migration, as it admitted its earlier figures were way, way out.
In sweeping revisions to figures it published just six months ago, the ONS said that over the last three years net migration was 307,000 higher than previously thought.
Net migration across 2021, 2022 and last year was, in fact, more than 2.2million rather than the 1.9million its estimates suggested in May. Within those three years, net migration peaked at 906,000 in the 12-month period to June last year – 166,000 higher than previously thought. An overlapping period – the 2023 calendar year – saw an even higher revision of 181,000.
To be clear on the terminology, net migration is the difference between the number of migrants arriving in Britain and those emigrating. And yesterday the ONS has confirmed its previous data on both components of that sum were wrong.
Immigration levels have been higher than previously thought and levels of emigration were over-estimated. In 2023, 450,000 emigrated rather than the ONS’ estimate of 532,000 – so more people are staying here.
The nub of the error is this: ONS statisticians had been assuming large numbers of foreign nationals whose original UK visas had expired and who had obtained a new visa were leaving the country. This assumption was incorrect or, at least, was applied too broadly. It turns out many of those foreign nationals were remaining in Britain.
The ONS now has access to additional Home Office data which digs deeper into the numbers, leading it to unveil its revisions to migration data. Its adjustments ‘did not go far enough in reducing emigration estimates’ and ‘failed to fully adjust for these populations’, ONS documents say.
The ONS privately admitted to me yesterday that its previous assumptions were ‘too generous’. Director Mary Gregory insisted net migration is ‘beginning to fall’, as latest figures show a dip from the 906,000 peak to 728,000 in the 12 months to June this year.
But the sheer scale of the recalculations has done nothing to reassure critics. One Conservative backbencher, Neil O’Brien, told me there needs to be a ‘total overhaul’ in the wake of the ‘incredible’ figures.
Residents of an asylum hotel. Labour has admitted to opening seven more since it came to power
ONS officials suggested the kind of seismic increases in their data which we saw yesterday will not be repeated. The trouble is, the ONS have given similar assurance in the past. It is far from certain that we won’t see large revisions in these ‘falling’ net migration figures, too.
Successive governments have been pledging to improve Britain’s border control systems so that everyone is ‘counted in and out’. This, of course, is the only way to ensure the Home Office knows how many foreign nationals are here, and particularly how many have overstayed their visas.
But the technology is still not in place. An electronic travel authorisation system is being introduced, which ministers said will allow a full tally to be compiled as part of a ‘fully digital border’. Whether it works or not will be another matter.
The government’s long-standing failure to produce reliable figures grows more intolerable by the day. Legitimate concerns about pressures on housing, the NHS, benefits, education and other public services cannot be measured without the full facts.
It really is time, as Mr O’Brien suggested to me, for a complete ‘re-boot’ of the stats. Only then can there be a proper, informed debate and ministers can draw up policies that will respond to the real situation on Britain’s streets.
