No 10 refuses to follow Cleverly in setting end of 2024 as target date for ending all small boat crossings – as it happened

Downing Street refuses to endorse home secretary as he says his aim is to reduce number of people crossing Channel on small boats to zero'. This live blog is closed

• Cleverly says UK asylum backlog cleared as almost 100,000 wait for decision

At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM's spokesperson claimed the government had gone further" than promised in tackling the asylum application backlog. In response to comments from Labour and others saying the legacy backlog has not been fully cleared, the spokesperson said:

We committed to clearing the backlog. That is what the government has done.

We are being very transparent about what that entails.

I said that this government would clear the backlog of asylum decisions by the end of 2023.

That's exactly what we've done.