James Cleverly mocked after he labelled backlog of asylum claimants a ‘queue’

Speaking after leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt delivered the business statement today, shadow leader Lucy Powell mocked the home secretary over his decision to label the backlog of asylum claimants a “queue”.

She said: “Perhaps [the leader of the House] can clear up some of the creative use of language used by the home secretary in his appearance at yesterday’s Home Affairs Select Committee.

“Apparently, we no longer have a backlog of asylum claims. It’s just a queue. A queue of 94,000 applicants. Some queue, but definitely not a backlog”.

In an appearance at the home affairs select committee yesterday, home secretary James Cleverly said: “There are a number of cases that we are working through. At any given time, someone who has arrived will be added the caseload. By your definition, if someone arrived yesterday, that would be a backlog. And I don’t agree with that as a definition”.

Responding to a different line of questioning this morning, Penny Mordaunt insisted that Conservative MPs were “faithfuls” – a reference to the popular TV programme Traitors.

She said: “I will make the case that we all ‘faithfuls’ on this side of the House. We have been faithful in our obligations to the British public”.