With the likelihood of a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol fading this week, a new issue has emerged to enrage the Tory right: fresh plans to cut tackle the asylum backlog. Asylum seekers will no longer be subjected to face-to-face interviews, with more than 12,000 migrants from five countries having their claims assessed on paper instead. These five countries – Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Eritrea and Yemen – have the highest asylum success rate. Asylum seekers will have 20 days to fill in and return the fast-track official forms. Officials expect 95 per cent of applicants to be given leave to remain for at least five years, although those who fail to complete the ten-page form ‘without reasonable explanation’ could have their claims withdrawn. The vast majority are expected to be allowed to stay in the UK without an interview. This system is part of Rishi Sunak’s pledge to clear a backlog of more than 90,000 outstanding ‘older’ asylum claims by the end of this year.

Unfortunately for No. 10, the press reaction to the announcement has been universally hostile

Unfortunately for No. 10, the press reaction has been universally hostile. Left-leaning papers such as the Guardian are full of outrage from immigration lawyers who say that 20 days is not long enough to fill out complex forms in a second language. And papers such as the Daily Mail and the Telegraph fear it’s an amnesty in all but name while some MPs have expressed concern it sends the wrong message to those seeking to come to the UK illegally. Marco Longhi and some other Red Wall MPs believe that the answer instead ought to be rapid deportation and the processing of claims overseas. One MP from the 2019 intake argues that it is the bureaucrats, not the bureaucracy, that is to blame for the backlog and wants ‘some of the officials’ to get ‘a kick up the backside’. Others question whether such a plan will really help see off the threat on the right from the Reform party, which hit ten points in one poll for the first time earlier this week. Its leader, Richard Tice, has already labelled the new scheme ‘disgraceful’ and claims it amounts to nothing more than ‘open borders’.

The timing of the announcement seems somewhat odd, given the sensitivities of various wings of the party around the Northern Ireland deal. In seeking to appease his colleagues further to the right of the party, Sunak may need to dish out more red meat on immigration – and fast.