the backlog is false. the figures are nearly 100,000 cases and they haven t even fully cleared the bit of the backlog they were targeting. with the number of small boats arriving down by more than a third last year compared with 2022, and a much improved processing rate for asylum cases, the government is claiming progress on immigration control but its critics argue the figures have been massaged and are far from a pledge delivered, the statistics show a promise broken. mark easton, bbc news. let s get more analysis of those figures. 0ur chief political correspondent henry zeffman is with me now. i guess we re going to be hearing much more about whole issue of asylum in general in what is almost certain to be an election year. it is a new political year but a familiar set of arguments. we know it is almost certain, as you say, 2024 will be a general election year. it is absolutely certain that when the general election comes asylum and immigration are going to be some of the big campa