Channel asylum seeker bill ‘will soar by £635 per taxpayer if Labour win power’
CHANNEL migrants will cost each taxpayer £635 more under Labour, the Tories claimed last night.
Home Secretary James Cleverly said working families will bear the £11.6billion projected annual cost of housing 185,000 asylum seekers.
The figures come from a 2023 Home Office impact assessment forecasting a daily hotel bill of £32million — should the small boats crisis continue to grow at its current rate.
Because Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to axe the Rwanda plan, the Tories say this worst-case scenario would trigger a £635 sting for Britain’s 18million working households.
But Labour last night rubbished the accusation and stressed processing asylum claims would help clear the backlog of cases stuck in government accommodation.
The party says allowing the tens of thousands of small boat arrivals — barred from claiming asylum — to launch a case would wrestle down the bill.
Some would be allowed to settle permanently while many would be removed.
The grant rate is currently 65 per cent.
Mr Cleverly said last night: “Keir Starmer would stand on the cliffs of Dover to do a rain dance and hope that stops the boats.”
A Labour spokeswoman said: “This is a ludicrous lie from an increasingly desperate Tory party who have completely lost control of the asylum system.”