Military sites to house asylum seekers to meet ‘essential living needs and nothing more’, says minister – as it happened

5.33pm BST

Afternoon summary

• Asylum seekers will be housed in the most basic accommodation possible, including disused army bases and possibly ships, to save money and to dissuade people from coming to the UK, the government has said.

• Angela Rayner has used a deputy leaders’ outing at prime minister’s questions to mock Dominic Raab for the claims of bullying against him, asking Raab if he will “walk before he’s pushed”.

• Scotland’s new first minister, Humza Yousaf, has revealed a majority-female cabinet, with half its members under the age of 40, as his attempts to unite the party stalled after a divisive leadership contest.

• Jeremy Hunt has pledged to find additional money to help fund public sector pay deals after admitting that Britain’s high level of inflation has made it impossible for Whitehall departments to end strikes without Treasury support.

• Rishi Sunak is facing questions over a potential conflict of interest after it emerged a childcare firm part owned by his wife is to benefit from major changes in the budget.

• Ministers have backed down over a refusal to publish “sensitive” internal government research into the effectiveness of benefit sanctions that has been kept under wraps by ministers for over two years.

Humza Yousaf with the Great Seal of Scotland after being sworn in as first minister at the Court of Session in Edinburgh today. Photograph: Jane Barlow/PA

5.19pm BST

Refugee Council disputes Jenrick's claim government on track to clear backlog of asylum applications this year

In the Commons Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, claimed the government is “on track to process the backlog of initial asylum decisions by the end of the year”.

But the Refugee Council says the government would have to quadruple the rate at which claims are being processed to achieve this. Enver Solomon, the charity’s CEO, explained:

More than 150,000 people are living in limbo because the government has failed to run an efficient and effective asylum system resulting in billions of pounds being wasted on using hotel accommodation. The majority are refugees escaping bombs and bullets, repression and persecution, without alternative ways to seek safety in the UK.

The government is still failing to make timely decisions with just 11,000 cases being processed in the last three months. To clear it by the end of the year will require a near quadrupling in the number of decisions made each month.

Solomon also said the plans announced today were not “serious, workable solutions”. He said:

They won’t address the challenges of the system the government itself admits is failing due to its own mismanagement. Instead we should be providing accommodation which treats people with humanity, dignity and compassion, not barges and shipping containers.

This is not who we are as a country. We can do so much better than this when it comes to reaching out to support those in need of safety and sanctuary.

Rishi Sunak has promised to clear the backlog of asylum applications by the end of this year, but No 10 has said this promise only covers the backlog of 92,601 claims in place before the Nationality and Borders Act come into force last summer – not the total backlog. Jenrick told MPs today that more than 11,000 cases in the backlog had been dealt with in the last three months. That suggests even hitting the No 10 definition of the target, although the government says it is hiring more staff to process applications.