PRITI Patel has accused Rishi Sunak of blocking cash to speed up the asylum backlog when he was Chancellor.
The ex-Home Secretary said he “completely rejected” her request for extra funding in 2021.
Priti Patel has accused Rishi Sunak of blocking cash to speed up the asylum backlog when he was Chancellor
Rishi Sunak says migration numbers are ‘too high’ and he’s ‘committed’ to bringing them down
She told the Inside Whitehall podcast the money was to computerise the system that is “still very paper-based”.
She added: “We said, ‘If you don’t do this you’re going to end up spending more money basically, because it will take longer to process the cases’.”
It comes as ministers brace themselves for record-breaking 2022 net migration figures.
A pledge to reduce it below 230,000 was abandoned by Mr Sunak last week.
Environment Secretary Therese Coffey yesterday risked controversy by telling Times Radio that high migration can be good for economic growth.
Meanwhile, Tory backbencher Andrea Jenkyns criticised Mr Sunak for dropping his pledge.
She said: “We can’t do political suicide over this at the moment. This is one where we need to put pressure on the Prime Minister to get back to more Conservative-type policies.”
Speaking in Japan, the PM said: “I think the numbers are too high. And I’m committed to bringing them down.”
He added: “We’re considering a range of options.”
A No 10 source said of Ms Patel’s claim: “As Chancellor, the PM put over £3billion into the UK’s asylum system, including an additional £85million per year to improve the case-working system and strengthening border security.”
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