Migrant crisis: Asylum backlog hits record high as Sunak fails to get control

The number waiting for more than six months stood at 139,961 at the end of June, up by 57 per cent year-on-year.

Almost 135,000 cases were being dealt with by the Home Office in relation to the total waiting list.

The number of cases being handled had also risen to 136,779.

However, data from the Home Office has not revealed how many people these cases are related to.

There has been a 19 per cent year-on-year increase in asylum applications, with the figure reaching 78,768.

Home Office data also revealed there has been a rapid rise in people arriving on work and study visas.

The Conservative Party pledged to “bring overall [immigration] numbers down” in its 2019 manifesto.

The Government later altered the law to ensure people on student visas cannot bring dependents with them from January 2024.

Rishi Sunak has staked his premiership on dealing with the ongoing Channel crossing crisis.

The Prime Minister made stopping the boats one of his five priorities after succeeding Liz Truss in No10 last autumn.

However, Sunak is facing further pressure to deliver on his commitment after conceding it is unlikely he can stop all the boats making the perilous 21-mile journey.

He said: “I want it to be done as soon as possible but I also want to be honest with people that it is a complex problem, there is not one simple solution and that it can’t be solved overnight and I wouldn’t be being straight with people if I said that was possible.”

Sunak added: “I am not complacent. I never said this would be easy, I never said it could be fixed overnight.

“We are going to attack it from every angle and not stop until we are done.”

However, Labour’s Shadow Immigration Minister Stephen Kinnock last week warned Sunak had “fundamentally failed to get a grip” of the Channel crossing crisis.

Sunak’s Channel crossing admission could further hamper the Conservative Party at the next general election.

Immigration and asylum are the third most important issue to British voters, a recent opinion poll by YouGov has revealed.

Two-in-five people listed the issue as among the most important, with the number increasing to 58 per cent with 2019 Tory voters.

Brexit-backers, who could prove vital to any potential Conservative bounceback, are similarly motivated by immigration at 57 per cent.