Home Office criticised over ‘woefully’ understated Tory asylum budgets

An IFS report vindicates Labour concerns that it inherited a worse financial situation than previously thought

The Home Office has been accused of submitting woeful" budget figures under successive Conservative ministers - which officials knew understated the ballooning cost of asylum and illegal immigration spending.

In a report partially vindicating Rachel Reeves's claim that the new Labour government inherited a far worse financial situation than initially thought, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank suggested the Home Office had repeatedly lowballed its budget estimates.