More than 100,000 people are still awaiting an asylum decision

More than 100,000 asylum seekers in Britain are still awaiting an initial decision - despite Labour's promise to 'clear the backlog' of cases.

Newly-published Home Office figures showed, at the end of March this year, there were 78,745 cases (relating to 109,536 people) awaiting an initial decision.

The data also revealed that 58 per cent of cases that were awaiting an initial decision had been doing so for more than six months.

And nearly one-third (31 per cent) of total cases had been awaiting an initial decision for more than a year.

Ahead of last July's general election, Labour promised to 'turn the page' and 'restore order' to the asylum system so that it 'operates swiftly, firmly and fairly'.