Suella Braverman has slammed the latest migration statistics, dubbing it a "national disaster".
She urged the Government to do more to cut down on arrivals to the UK, warning: "We don’t have enough homes, GPs or schools to support this level".
Fresh migration statistics were published this morning, showing that health and care visas for foreign workers have almost doubled to 146,477 in the last year.
Family members joining their relatives via this route accounted for 73 per cent of the 279,131 work dependent visas that were granted in the year up to December 2023, new figures from the Home Office show.
Suella Braverman has slammed the latest migration statistics, dubbing it a "national disaster"
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The UK granted asylum to 62,336 people in 2023, the highest level ever recorded.
The figures also showed that some 45,434 asylum seekers are still being housed in taxpayer-funded hotels, despite Rishi Sunak's pledge to stop using them. They also reveal that just two per cent of small boat arrivals have been returned since 2018.
The asylum backlog, however, has fallen. The number of cases awaiting an initial decision has fallen by 28 per cent since December 2022.
At the end of December 2023, there were 95,252 cases waiting for an initial decision.
In total, there were 67,337 new asylum applications in the UK in 2023, 17 per cent lower than in 2022.
The number of people being housed in hotels has fallen 18 per cent since September 2023, when 56,042 were in the taxpayer-funded rooms.
Reacting to the figures on X, the former Home Secretary said: "1.4 million people were granted visas here last year. Asylum approvals at a record high. Work and student visa numbers, including many dependents, are appalling.
In December, the Government announced that it will tighten several criteria for legal migration
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"This cannot go on: we don’t have enough homes, GPs or schools to support this level.
"The PM must adopt policies I pushed for that would have prevented this national disaster: we need a cap on overall numbers.
"Britain will be unrecognisable if this carries on. It’s not what the British people, including me, voted for."
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In December, the Government announced that it will tighten several criteria for legal migration, including preventing care workers from bringing over their families, raising salary thresholds for most skilled workers and increasing application fees.
Home Secretary James Cleverly unveiled a five-point plan to curb legal migration, in a move which he said would cut migration by up to 300,000.
He claimed the move will cause the "biggest ever reduction" in migration.