The Tories are slowly turning the tide on immigration

For years the government has appeared to be setting itself up for failure with its promises to crack down on illegal immigration. The plan to process asylum claims in Rwanda was always going to excite immigration lawyers. Sure enough, it remains mired in the legal process. Even if the government wins its case in the Supreme Court, there remains the vast obstacle of the European Court of Human Rights.

The promise to ‘stop the boats’ was a hostage to fortune. The boats continue to arrive; it is not possible to patrol every square inch of the English Channel. The discovery of legionella bacteria on the Bibby Stockholm, the barge on which the government is planning to house asylum seekers, seemed at the time to be the final straw for the hapless Home Office.

And yet there are glimmers of hope that the government’s strategy might finally be working. At the start of the year, the Border Force expected 65,000 asylum -seekers to arrive on small boats during 2023. The real number now looks like being half that: 26,000 have arrived so far, two-thirds of the number who had come by this stage last year. Meanwhile there are reports that the processing of applications has sped up. The government was able to announce this week that 100 hotels will no longer be used to house asylum seekers.