To stick to its promise . As to stick to its promise . As a tory mp reveals , he was arrested tory mp reveals, he was arrested on suspicion of rape, the number of conservatives embroiled in Sexual Misconduct allegation grows to a total of nine. How damaging will this be to a party already on the back foot . Well have the latest. And as israel gears up for a full Ground Invasion and the west throws its weight behind them, Vladimir Vladimir putin wades into the conflict, inviting senior hamas and iranian leaders to moscow for talks. Mark white will have all the latest. Well it comes as us forces carried out a strike against what they said were Iranian Revolutionary guard positions in Eastern Syria. 20 us soldiers have been injured in recent clashes , 18 injured in recent clashes, 18 dead, 13 injured, and three in Critical Condition. Critical condition. Even as police in the us state of maine continue their manhunt after a deadly mass shooting. Well have the latest shooting. Well have the latest live from washington. Anne and live from washington. Anne and alex burgo, of course, will have all your latest weather forecasts. Forecasts. Good morning. Watch out for some fog first thing this morning, but that will clear and then its a showers or longer spells of rain many. Ill spells of rain for many. Ill have more details later. And please join us in a big warm welcome to the newest member of the breakfast family. Ashley wilmot will be here with all the sport. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome. So to good be here. Weve got a lot to good be here. Weve got a lot to talk about. Were going to be looking at the europa looking back at the Europa League action from night League Action from last night as well as discussing why england probably world probably wish the cricket world cup already over. Cup was already over. Yeah, theyre not alone with that. Absolutely terrible. Absolutely terrible. Shocking. Anyway, im martin daubney. Good morning. Daubney. Good morning. Im Ellie Costello and this is breakfast on gb news. Good is breakfast on gb news. Good morning to you and thank you so much for your company. Now to our top story, the asylum backlog that refuses to go away. Prime minister rishi sunak pledged the home office would clear a huge number of asylum claims by end of the year. Claims by the end of the year. Well it seems he so far is nowhere near delivering. Nowhere near delivering. Yeah, the hope was to ease overcrowding in migrant Detention Centres and say the taxpayer money on Hotels Holding thousands of people seeking asylum. And thats now £8 million every single day. A million every single day. A report by a Cross Party Committee says a huge challenge remains with the home office and the governments plan to reform the governments plan to reform the asylum system to speed the process is incomplete and unrealistic. Well , for more on this and well, for more on this and other news from westminster, we are joined now by our Political Correspondent olivia utley. Very correspondent olivia utley. Very good to see you this morning, olivia. And before we get into the asylum backlog , i just the asylum backlog, i just wanted to touch on Crispin Blunt, who has confirmed he is the mp who was arrested on wednesday on suspicion of rape. So please do tell us the latest. So please do tell us the latest. Yeah this should be an absolutely shocking story. A conservative mp arrested for rape, but unfortunately some things like this have happened. So often over the past couple of years as its almost gone unknown. Wokeist in westminster unknown. Wokeist in westminster there are now nine conservative mps whove had the whip suspended for allegations of Sexual Misconduct. Two conservative mps are serving pfison conservative mps are serving prison sentences. They were tried in convicted of sexual crimes. And there are another crimes. And there are another seven who are who are in a limbo pefiod seven who are who are in a limbo period either awaiting a Court Judgement or awaiting the judgement or awaiting the judgement of the whips. Now, Crispin Blunt, it must be said, absolutely denies all allegations. He made absolutely denies all allegations. He made a statement, a very unusual statement, a very unusual Statement Last night, confirming that he was the mp. There was lots of speculation last night that Crispin Blunt was at the centre of these rape allegations claims, but has said that he claims, but he has said that he is confident is helping the is confident he is helping the police with their inquiries and hes confident that this wont result in a conviction. Now, Crispin Blunt has a has a very, very colourful history. As an mp. He grew up in a traditional sort of upper middle class background. But then developed some very sort of liberal principles which at times have been completely odds with his been completely at odds with his own benches. He for own front benches. He for example, very recently has been pretty much the lone supporter of palestinians on the conservative benches and has asked israel to restrain itself years ago. He also came out as gay, ending a 20 year marriage to his wife , which at the time to his wife, which at the time was seen as a pretty sort of controversial move for a conservative mp. And then he admitted to using the sex drug poppers in a debate in the house of commons. So this is an mp with a very colourful history indeed, and the investigation is ongoing. Now, Crispin Blunt says that he is absolutely convinced that he is absolutely convinced that it wont result in a conviction, but either way, its quite a headache for the conservative government. Olivia a Resurgent Labour Party , a tory party mired by party, a tory party mired by sleaze. It feels like the 1990s all over again. How damaging do all over again. How damaging do you think this would for be the tories running up to the general election . Election . Well, i think that this this this story in itself, you know , this story in itself, you know, not that many people have heard of Crispin Blunt in the wider public. This by itself might not be too damaging. But as i say , be too damaging. But as i say, given that there are now nine conservative mps who are under some sort of cloud because of allegations of Sexual Misconduct, i think those things add up in the publics mind. And if youre just an ordinary person, ordinary voter sitting at home, this will just seem like, oh , not again, as you say, like, oh, not again, as you say, it feels very much like the 1990s. Feels like the dying 1990s. This feels like the dying days of the john major government. The question now is whether we will see the resurgence of popularity of labour and a sort of new dawn in the way that we saw with tony blair. Im slightly sceptical of predicting that, simply because i dont think there is the same sort of energy and enthusiasm behind keir starmer as there was behind keir starmer as there was behind tony blair in 1997. But the next few months could well prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Olivia, i wanted to ask you about rishi sunak pledging that the home office would clear a huge number of asylum claims by the end of this year. Well, thats not looking too hopeful, is it . According to this new report . Report . No , its not looking too no, its not looking too hopeful at all. This is a very new report by the commons Public Accounts Committee. And accounts committee. And essentially it throws cold water over Robert Jenrick claim that the asylum backlog is going down. He stood up in the commons a few days ago and made a statement saying that because of work by the government, the asylum is now going down asylum backlog is now going down and government is now in and the government is now in a position to start ending contracts with hotels that are being used to house migrants. Well, the Public Accounts Committee has essentially pointed although the pointed out that although the legacy backlog might be going down, i. E. Old claims that were made before 2022, that is going down very slowly. But obviously at the same time, new claims are coming in. So actually the overall backlog is higher than it was six months ago. Now its very unclear how the government is going to deal with this situation. There are currently 400 hotels being used to house about 50,000 migrants at a cost of £8 million a day to the taxpayer. Now, jenrick has said taxpayer. Now, jenrick has said he will close about 100 of them over the over the next six months. But this report suggests that that will probably be impossible if the if the new claims keep coming in. Now, really what the conservative need to do is get to get to the root of the problem and start processing these claims faster. But thats easier said than done. There are a lot of caseworkers in the home caseworkers on the in the home office on these cases. Office working on these cases. And the average time for the and yet the average time for the for an asylum claim to take to be processed is its really astonishing 430 days. So thats over a year. Now labour have said that they will fix this problem by simply employing another 1000 Home Office Caseworkers hours. But with the numbers of migrants just going up numbers of migrants just going p by numbers of migrants just going up by the day , this bottleneck up by the day, this bottleneck is getting bigger and bigger. Its a very tricky task for whichever government takes it on. On. A tricky task and definitely a huge challenge. Thank you so much, olivia utley there for us in westminster. In westminster. Now the member for reigate identified himself on social media as the man Surrey Police detained in horley yesterday morning. In his statement, he said the following it has been reported that an mp was arrested in connection an allegation in connection with an allegation of. I am confirming that mp of rape. I am confirming that mp was me. The facts of the arrest requires a formal notification of the speaker and then my chief whip. I have now been interviewed twice in connection with this incident. The first with this incident. The first time three weeks ago when i initially reported my concern over extortion. The second time over extortion. The second time was earlier this morning under caution following arrest. The caution following arrest. The arrest was was unnecessary. As arrest was was unnecessary. As i remain ready to fully cooperate with the investigation. But im confident it will end without charge. I do not intend to say charge. I do not intend to say anything further on this matter until the police have completed their inquiries. That statement there from Crispin Blunt, mp and of course, this is a developing story and well have more for you on gb news across the day. Lets get back to the asylum backlog story, which our lead story today. Joining us now is International Security and Border Control expert henry bolton obe very good to see you this morning, mr bolton. And this morning, mr bolton. And this morning, mr bolton. And this is a new report , isnt it . This is a new report, isnt it . And as we just heard from olivia utley, she says it throws cold water on the claims from the government that that backlog is going down. Indeed. And you know, some of us have been saying for a very long time now, two, three years, that the government actually needs to put the resources into the processing side of the asylum claims. Othennise exactly this would happen. And, you know this would happen. And, you know , they didnt listen. Everything , they didnt listen. Everything that the home office has done regarding immigration, regarding the asylum system, regarding the small boats, has been one of stand alone decisions or actions or changes rather than being part of an overall strategic framework with with a set of serious National Objectives that all the different agencies can augn all the different agencies can align themselves to and properly resourced. Now, thats what most countries have. We dont. And countries have. We dont. And the other thing about this and the other thing about this and the report highlights this or sort of illustrates this very well , is that sort of illustrates this very well, is that you cant simply well, is that you cant simply we do something in one area without of asylum, without it having a knock on somewhere else and you know, if you are not processing correctly , you are processing correctly, you are going fast enough. If you havent put the resources into it, if you havent trained your staff adequately, which is the case, then you are going to have a problem in in terms of accommodation. So then you accommodation. And so then you end up with additional taxpayer costs it is it costs there. You know, it is it is mind bogglingly incompr etant of the home office to have put it together like this. There is it together like this. There is no plan. No plan. Labour party will say that clearing the backlog is the answer, but what would you say to the fact that the uk has one of the lowest return rates and refusal rates for asylum in all of mainland europe . In fact only 24 of claims are knocked back, so surely clearing the backlog would just mean more people being granted asylum in the uk, which wont solve the problem at all. Dede, youre absolutely right. Martin and that is essentially the plan. And essentially the plan. And theres a simplification of the questions that are going to be asked. Now, thats the idea asked. Now, thats the idea already with the government. Laboun already with the government. Labour, im sure , would would labour, im sure, would would just simply put more resources into asking equally simple and thin questions. Theyre not probing enough by any means, and the staff asking the questions have no knowledge whatsoever of the areas that these people have either come from or or travelled through. So there are totally ill equipped to make a proper decision. It becomes a papennork tick box exercise rather than a proper investigation into the asylum claim. But the other asylum claim. But the other thing, martin, is youve got youve got sort of three elements. Youve got. Why are people leaving the place that they are leaving . Youve got why are they moving along the route that they moving along . And that they are moving along . And how how do we disrupt that . How and how do we disrupt that . And got the pull and then youve got the pull factor. Why they to the factor. Why do they come to the uk all of that . It is really uk and all of that . It is really its not being dealt with. You mentioned the returns, but to do a return, youve got to connect your immigration and your home office with with your foreign affairs, with the embassies and so on, with the foreign foreign commonwealth and development office. Thats not happening. There is no unified structure. There is no unified structure. There is no National Working group trying to work this issue. The home office wants something. They have to go to the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office then scrambles around, talks about it, thinks about bit, it, thinks about it a bit, scratches their head, goes back, asks few questions, and, you asks a few questions, and, you know, month of know, it takes a month of sundays even sort of get any sundays to even sort of get any any ball rolling, let alone sort of an agreement completed. Of get an agreement completed. The needs to go back the whole thing needs to go back to the drawing board and i know that that means that in the meantime, weve got to continue this of band aid type type this sort of band aid type type of response. But we need to have a National Working group, a Borders Working Group that bnngs Borders Working Group that brings all these agencies together with sufficient authority, somebody chairing it with sufficient authority to make them actually coordinate, put together a proper plan, National Strategic objectives and ensuring the unity of effort of all the Government Agencies involved. You know, even albania has that. Macedonia has it, tajikistan, some of the poorest countries in the Northern Hemisphere have done this, and it works. The uk does not. One it works. The uk does not. One final example. Martin. Martin you know, weve got by my calculation, it depends how you sort of work it, but 7 or 8 different Government Departments and agencies with Patrol Vessels working on our in the english channel. Now i know thats slightly different to the asylum processing, but its an illustration of how badly organised is. You to organised this is. You go to finland, you to sweden, you finland, you go to sweden, you go canada, to the go to canada, you go to the United States, you go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyoud states, you go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go tates, you go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go to es, you go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go to anyou go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go to any of go to holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go to any of these holland go to canada, you go to the uyou go to any of these placesd , you go to any of these places and you will find youve and you will find that youve got agency that responds to got one agency that responds to all various things their all