Statistics watchdog rebukes Sunak over inaccurate asylum backlog figures

Rishi Sunak had incorrectly told the Commons the asylum backlog was half the size it was when Labour was in office. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Rishi Sunak and his immigration minister have been scolded by the UK statistics watchdog for using inaccurate figures to back up spurious claims about asylum seekers.

In a statement to the House of Commons in December, the prime minister claimed that the asylum backlog – 132,000 cases at the time – was half the size of the backlog left by the departing Labour government in 2010. This implied the backlog in 2010 would have been about 260,000.