UK government reportedly drops proposal for speech update on immigration

<p>The report from The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/20/no-10-drops-planned-end-of-year-sunak-speech-on-immigration?CMP=twt_b-gdnnews" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a> outlines that the proposal for such a speech has now been scrapped over the Conservative party split on the Rwanda bill and also some alleged "number fiddling" in trying to house asylum seekers. On the latter, it is said that the Home Office is merely re-categorising "legacy" backlog asylum claims than actually clearing it – essentially a left pocket to right pocket kind of situation. But in Sunak's books, that will see his pledge to clear the backlog realised. A source in the report notes that:</p><p>“Many cases are dropped because claimants have not filled in questionnaires on time or have failed to attend an interview. Their forms will be resubmitted and the claims re-categorised (as "secondary asylum casework"), but no longer part of the legacy backlog. It looks like a way of fiddling the figures to hit the PM’s target.”</p><p>Immigration has become somewhat of a hot topic in major economies as of late. And Adam also has a good piece on what is happening in Canada here yesterday: <a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/the-latest-canadian-population-numbers-are-insane-20231220/" target="_blank" rel="follow">The latest Canadian population numbers are insane</a></p>

This article was written by Justin Low at www.forexlive.com.