Home secretary says also that ministers are examining third-country processing for people arriving in the UK illegally

Small boat crossings would be “thousands higher” under the Conservatives the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, has said, though they remain 20% higher than this time last year.

But Cooper declined to say when people can expect to see the number reduce, saying only that the government was making progress on reducing the asylum backlog, accusing the previous government of having “crash[ed] the asylum system”.