But the proportion being granted fell from 67 per cent in 2023 to 47 per cent last year in a sign processors are getting tougher.
Yet deportations of small boat migrants remain incredibly low, with just 4,995 sent home over the last six years - a rate of 3 per cent.
Border Minister Dame Angela Eagle hit back: “Over the last six years, legal migration soared, a criminal smuggler industry was allowed to establish itself in the Channel, and the asylum system was broken.
Meanwhile asylum claims were up 18 per cent last year at 108,000, surpassing the previous 2002 record of 103,000.
Some 162,000 migrants were also granted settled status in Britain last year, which was a third more than 2023 and the highest for 13 years.
