Nigel Farage has warned the Tories that illegal immigration is “rapidly climbing up towards the top of the list” of voters’ political priorities. 

The former leader of the Brexit Party suggested the Conservatives could pay the price at the ballot box at the next general election as he took aim at Rishi Sunak over his handling of the small boats crisis. 

He told GB News: “What is for certain is that this whole issue of illegal immigration and legal immigration is rapidly climbing up towards the top of the list of political priorities in this country, as I always thought it would.”

His comments came after Mr Sunak sparked a row by claiming to have delivered on his pledge to clear the backlog of “legacy” asylum claims. 

The Prime Minister pledged to clear the backlog of more than 91,000 outstanding “legacy” asylum cases older than June 2022 by the end of 2023.

The Home Office claimed the backlog had been cleared but officials also admitted 4,500 of the cases had been reviewed but not yet decided. Labour said the claim of having cleared the backlog was therefore “false”. 

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