The suspect in the Liverpool bombing was able to exploit the UK’s ‘dysfunctional’ asylum system to remain in the country, Priti Patel has claimed.

The home secretary has described the system as a ‘complete merry-go-round’ with a ‘whole industry’ devoted to defending the rights of people intent on causing harm.

Emad Al Swealmeen, 32, died when homemade device exploded outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital in a terror attack moments before the 11am two-minute silence on Remembrance Sunday.

The suspect had an application for asylum rejected in 2015 after arriving from the Middle East the previous year but was still in the country six years later.

But Ms Patel’s comments come as new research shows most migrants make the dangerous journey across the English Channel to flee persecution.

The Tory politician said the Liverpool case showed why the Government was right to reform the asylum system while on a flight to Washington, according to reports.

She said: ‘The case in Liverpool was a complete reflection of how dysfunctional, how broken, the system has been in the past, and why I want to bring changes forward.

‘It’s a complete merry-go-round and it has been exploited. A whole sort of professional legal services industry has based itself on rights of appeal, going to the courts day-in day-out at the expense of the taxpayers through legal aid. That is effectively what we need to change.’

She added: ‘These people have come to our country and abused British values, abused the values of the fabric of our country and our society.

‘And as a result of that, there’s a whole industry that thinks it’s right to defend these individuals that cause the most appalling crimes against British citizens, devastating their lives, blighting communities – and that is completely wrong.’

Data from the Refugee Council suggests ‘majority of people crossing the Channel are likely to be recognised as being in need of protection’ at the initial decision stage. A third would not be allowed to stay in the UK.

Between January 2020 and June this year, 91% of migrants came from 10 countries where human rights abuses and persecution are widespread, including Afghanistan, Iran and Syria.

The UK’s terror threat was raised from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’ in the aftermath of the Liverpool bombing. 

This means an attack is now deemed to be ‘highly likely’ but not imminent.

Investigators are ‘keeping an open mind’ on the motivation which is currently unknown.

Speaking to The Sun, an unnamed source claimed Al Swealmeen could have detonated a suicide bomb after being ‘pushed over the edge’ when his asylum applications were repeatedly turned down.

A Christian couple who took in the ‘desperate’ Liverpool terror suspect back in 2017 have said the news is ‘almost too impossible to believe’.

Malcolm and Elizabeth claim he had been an ‘absolutely genuine’ Christian with a ‘real passion for Jesus Christ’.

It comes amid growing concern within the Home Office at the role on the Church of England in converting asylum seekers.

Mr Hitchcott told BBC Radio Merseyside: ‘He arrived here on April 1, 2017. He was with us then for eight months, and during that time we saw him really blossoming in regards to his Christian faith.

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‘He really had a passion about Jesus that I wish many Christians had, and he was ready to learn.

‘He was keen on reading his Bible and every night we used to pray – my wife and him, and if there was anybody else in the house – we prayed for half an hour or so and studied the scriptures.

‘He was absolutely genuine, as far as I could tell. I was in no doubt by the time that he left us at the end of that eight months that he was a Christian.’

Taxi driver David Perry escaped the blast alive, with a shocking video showing him staggering from the vehicle at the last moment.

Four men arrested under terrorism laws in the Kensington area of Liverpool – aged 21, 26 and 29 and 20 have now been released from police custody following interviews.

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