The Home Office has asked the Treasury for an an emergency cash payment of £2.6bn after underestimating its hotel bill for housing asylum seekers.
Home secretary James Cleverly has made a formal request for the money after a shortfall last year, when Suella Braverman was in charge.
The overspend, which compares with a total budget of about £20bn, follows a £1bn overspend in the last financial year.
Whitehall sources said the extra cash was spent on hotel rooms for asylum seekers during a period when the numbers being housed in hotels exceeded 50,000 for the first time.
