James Cleverly insists older asylum case backlog dealt with

The home secretary has rejected claims that the government was wrong to say it has cleared the backlog of older asylum cases — despite new figures showing thousands of cases remain unresolved.

James Cleverly said «every single» legacy application — the term for those made before asylum laws changed in 2022 — had been processed.

PM Rishi Sunak pledged to «abolish» that asylum backlog by the end of 2023.

New figures show the total asylum backlog now stands at 99,000.

But among legacy applications — all those made before 28 June 2022 — the Home Office were still looking at 4,500 «complex» cases — some involving security concerns, Mr Cleverley admitted.

Questioned on BBC Radio 4's Today programme about whether the backlog was cleared if cases are not fully resolved, Mr Cleverly said the government had «committed to processing all those applications» not completing them.

«Our commitment was to process them and we've done that,» he added.

The government says the cut in the total number of asylum claims from 136,000 this time last year to 99,000 is due to resolving the «legacy» backlog of applications.

This is due to a «tenfold increase in the pace at which we complete the processing,» Mr Cleverly said.

However, the number of applications since June 2022 awaiting an initial decision has risen from 900 to over 94,000.

This so-called new «flow backlog» is now larger than the legacy backlog was when Mr Sunak promised to abolish it in December 2022.

Under questioning, Mr Cleverly said it was «impossible» to say how long it will take to get through outstanding asylum cases.

But he added the government enhanced the asylum system by adding «more people», refining «processes», and implementing «real accountability».

But critics have