Home Office spending on asylum has surged by more than a third in a year to nearly £5.4billion to hit the highest figure since records began – with 66 per cent arriving on small boats being granted leave to remain.

The eyewatering bill includes all the department’s costs related to asylum, including direct cash support and accommodation, but excludes costs relating to the interception of migrants in the Channel.

One factor fuelling it is the number of asylum seekers staying in hotels while they wait for their claims to be processed. An additional 6,000 migrants are in hotels since Labour entered government, with the total reaching 35,651 by the end of September.

The asylum grant rate for migrants who have crossed the Channel currently stands at 66 per cent, ranging from 99 per cent from those fleeing Syria to just two per cent for Albanians.

Downing Street said the Government could not solve the small boats crisis overnight but was taking action, when asked when it expected crossings to start coming down.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘The Government inherited the worst start to a year on record for small boats arrivals, higher even than the record year in 2022 and the scale of that challenge means we can’t solve this overnight, but we are working at pace to dismantle the business model that drives this dangerous trade.’

When put to him that the number of migrants housed in hotels had gone up by 6,000 under Labour, the spokesman said ministers had taken ‘immediate action’ to start clearing the asylum backlog, which would help reduce the number of people accommodated in hotels.

He added: ‘But restoring order to the system we inherited will take time. We constantly review our use of accommodation. As the manifesto set out the Government is committed to ending the use of asylum hotels and saving the taxpayer millions of pounds.

The total asylum bill for 2023-24 stood at £5.38bn in 2023/24, up 36 per cent from £3.95bn in 2022/23 and the largest total since comparable data began in 2010/11.

By way of comparison, the most recent bill is nearly half the £10.4bn spent on the Ministry of Justice, which runs the country’s legal system, and more than the total annual spend on all the UK’s intelligence services.

Home Office statistics show that there were 97,170 asylum claims awaiting an initial decision as of 30 September 2024, relating to 133,409 people.

This is a 19 per cent decrease compared to the same point in 2023, but a 12 per cent increase in the last quarter.

It comes as the UK’s net immigration record was smashed again with 906,000 now thought to have been added to the population in a single year.

Huge revisions to official data show the extraordinary mark was hit in the year to June 2023 – and the figures remain at historically unprecedented levels.

Official data covering the 12 months to June this year show long-term immigration was 728,000 higher than those leaving the country.

That is almost as high as the previous record.

But the bar has been shifted upwards by the Office for National Statistics, with net migration for the year to June 2023 skyrocketing upwards by 166,000 from the initial estimate of 740,000.

A similar revision has been made for net migration in the year to December 2023, which was initially believed to be 685,000 and is now put at 866,000, an increase of 181,000.

The ONS said it now has more complete data and has also improved how it estimates the migration behaviour of people arriving in the UK from outside the EU.

However, the latest extraordinary revisions will fuel criticism of the stats body – which is already under intense fire for faulty labour force numbers.

The scale of the inflows – with the peak roughly equivalent to adding two cities the same size as Leicester in a year – is poised to spark a fresh political row. Numbers from outside the EU have exploded since 2021, after the Brexit deal took effect.

Kemi Badenoch used a major speech last night to insist the Tories would not allow Britain to be treated like a ‘hotel’ for migrants.

Director Mary Gregory said: ‘Since 2021, long-term international migration to the UK has been at unprecedented levels. This has been driven by a variety of factors, including the war in Ukraine and the effects of the post-Brexit immigration system. Pent-up demand for study-related immigration because of travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic also had an impact.

‘While remaining high by historic standards, net migration is now beginning to fall and is provisionally down 20 per cent in the 12 months to June 2024.

‘Over that period we have seen a fall in immigration, driven by declining numbers of dependants on study visas coming from outside the EU.

‘Over the first six months of 2024, we are also seeing decreases in the number of people arriving for work-related reasons. This is partly related to policy changes earlier this year and is consistent with visa data published by Home Office.

‘We are also starting to see increases in emigration, most notably for those who came to the UK on study-related visas. This is likely to be a consequence of the higher numbers of students coming to the UK post pandemic who are now reaching the end of their courses.’

Migration Watch Chairman Alp Mehmet said net migration is ‘still far too high and unsustainable’.

‘Moreover, the modest fall has little to do with anything that Sir Keir Starmer and his Home Secretary have done.

‘It is now essential that net migration is quickly reduced as close as possible to zero, if we are to avoid further tensions in the housing sector, the NHS and other services already in crisis.

‘Meanwhile, the changing nature of society that inevitably follows rapid mass immigration will put the cohesion we have long enjoyed at ever greater risk.’

The revisions come as the ONS has continued to review its net migration figures as more complete data becomes available and has improved how it estimates the migration behaviour of people arriving in the UK from outside the European Union.

Ms Badenoch warned yesterday that immigration levels are ‘a world away from where we need to be’.

She promised a ‘strict numerical cap’ on arrivals, with only those able to make a ‘substantial and clear contribution’ to Britain allowed in.

She will review Britain’s membership of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the continuation of Labour’s Human Rights Act, which have both been blamed for blocking past attempts to get tough.

The Tory leader said there would be ‘zero tolerance for foreign criminals remaining in the UK’.

Tory ministers originally predicted their changes would cut numbers by 300,000, but the full effect will not be seen until next year’s figures.