TORY ministers must grant leave to remain to refugees who have waited more than a year for a decision on their asylum claim, campaigners said today after the claims backlog hit record highs.

A whopping 175,457 people were waiting for an initial decision on their asylum applications at the end of June, according to Home Office figures published today – up 44 per cent from the same month last year and the highest figure ever recorded.

And in another record, eight out of 10 claimants – 139,961 people – had been left waiting longer than six months for an initial decision as of early summer, up 57 per cent in a year, the floundering government department admitted.