Sunak says UK has ‘proud history of welcoming refugees’

Rishi Sunak described the UK as having a “proud history” of welcoming refugees during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, 3 May.

It comes after the government proposed the Illegal Migration Bill, which would mean those who arrive in the UK illegally will be detained and “promptly removed” and will not be able to return or claim British citizenship.

Official government figures show that in December 2022 there were 166,261 people with asylum applications awaiting an initial decision, almost nine times higher than the 18,954 people in June 2010 - the latter figure reported by the UK Statistics Authority.

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