Yvette Cooper responds to the Home Office’s £2.6 billion overspend

Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, responding to the Home Office’s £2.6 billion overspend, said:

“The Tories have completely bust the budget of the Home Office through staggering incompetence and chaos, but the taxpayer is paying the price. The overspend this year is significantly worse than last year despite all Rishi Sunak’s promises.

“Their failure to clear the asylum backlog, end the use of hotels for asylum seekers stuck in their broken asylum system or sort out proper contracts has left them with an eyewatering £2.6 billion blackhole that the British taxpayer will need to fill. Time and again they go for gimmicks rather than ever getting a grip.

“Labour set out a plan last year to clear the backlog, recruiting over 1,000 new case workers and ending the use of extortionate asylum hotels. That would save over £2 billion and sort out the Tory chaos.”

Ends

Notes

https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-02-01/hcws235