Suella Braverman has been rebuked by the UK’s official statistics watchdog for suggesting that 100 million asylum seekers could come to the UK.
The home secretary was accused of inflammatory language after she claimed the “law-abiding patriotic majority” were fed up with “waves of illegal migrants breaching our border”.
Unveiling her small boats bill in March, Ms Braverman also told the Commons: “There are 100 million people around the world who could qualify for protection under our current laws. Let’s be clear – they are coming here.”
The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) has rebutted the claim – saying it was “not an estimate of either the number of people who would qualify for asylum if they were to reach the UK or of the number of displaced people likely to seek asylum in the UK”.
UKSA chair Robert Chote said the watchdog “encourages ministers and other senior public figures to present numerical evidence … clearly so that the public can understand and verify any claims made”.
It is the second such rebuke for Ms Braverman, after she was told in December that official data does not support her claim that migrants are “gaming” the modern slavery system.
The latest warning came in a reply to a formal complaint by Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael.
Mr Carmichael called on the home secretary to apologise and urgently make a statement in parliament to clarify her wording after being “rebuffed” by the stats authority.
“Time and again, Suella Braverman has pushed unworkable and failed proposals – from the epidemic of unsolved burglaries to the botched Rwanda scheme,” the senior Lib Dem MP told The Independent.
“The home secretary has hidden behind inflammatory and inaccurate rhetoric for too long,” he added. “And that has finally been rebuffed. Suella Braverman should come to the Commons immediately and apologise for her comments and correct the record.”
While the United Nations Human Rights Council has estimated that there at more than 100 million forcibly displaced people around the world, but only 26 million have left their own country.
The Refugee Council said it was “unhelpful” for Ms Braverman to have suggested 100 million were coming to the UK. The Stand For All charity said it was “next level bs”, while the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants was “horrified” at the “inflammatory, scaremongering rhetoric”.
Nearly 90,000 people made asylum claims in the UK last, including many of the 45,000 who arrived via small boats. Campaigners have argued there are not enough safe and legal routes for those fleeing persecution.
Rishi Sunak was criticised by the official statistics watchdog last month for making false claims about the backlog of claims made by asylum seekers.
The PM had told parliament in December that the backlog was only “half” of the number of claims in the system when Labour left office in 2010. But UKSA said this was incorrect and “do not reflect the position shown by the Home Office’s statistics”.
In December, the UK Office for Statistics Regulation, part of the UKSA, said it had requested “specific evidence” for Ms Braverman’s claims on modern slavery but none was provided.
Ed Humpherson, the director general for regulation, said that although the number of modern slavery victims referred to by the Home Office had increased rapidly, the rise “may reflect changes in awareness”.
Mr Humpherson said that if there is no evidence available, ministers and officials should make the sources for statements clear to “avoid the risk of misleading people”.
The Independent has approached the Home Office for comment.
