A new poll has suggested that confidence in the government's asylum policy is at an all time low.

The results suggest that immigration worries are now replacing health and crime as the public's key concerns.

The Daily Telegraph/YouGov poll found that 60 per cent of voters disagree with the home secretary's comment last year that there was "no obvious limit" to the number of economic migrants Britain could accept.

The findings suggest the public has not been persuaded by the government's argument that foreign workers are needed to fill job vacancies.

The poll also reveals that a majority already believe Britain is too crowded.

David Blunkett has admitted that the government faces a "long hard haul" to convince the public that it has "got a grip on the asylum system".

'Misleading'

The poll comes on top of accusations that asylum figures released by the government on Tuesday have been misrepresented.

Despite the National Audit Office's verdict that the Home Office figures were "broadly reliable", they described the numbers reported to be under the care of the National Asylum Support Service as "misleading".

They said up to 24,000 refugees were omitted from the figures.

The official statistics revealed that 120,000 foreign nationals were granted asylum in Britain last year, a record number.

"We still don't know how many people are in this country, and we still don't know how many of them are here illegally," said Tory home affairs spokesman David Davis.