Labour has opened more hotels for asylum seekers than it has closed since coming to power, despite pledging to end their use.
Dame Angela Eagle, the border security minister, said the number of hotels being used to house asylum seekers had increased from 213 to 220 in the four months since the election. While seven have closed since July, 14 have opened, giving a net rise of seven.
Tory MPs accused Sir Keir Starmer of breaching his manifesto pledge to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”. There are currently about 30,000 migrants in hotels at a cost of more than £4.2 million a day to the taxpayer.
Labour is also preparing to increase the number of migrants housed on the former RAF base at Wethersfield in Braintree, Essex, from 540 to at least 800, despite pledging to shut the Tories’ main asylum accommodation sites.
Before the election Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, suggested Labour aimed to end the use of hotels within a year, but the Home Office has been forced to open new ones amid a surge in migrants crossing the Channel. The numbers have increased by 21 per cent so far this year to 33,562 from 27,670 in the same period in 2023.
The reopening of hotels was raised in an urgent question in the Commons by Sir Gavin Williamson, the former Conservative minister, who blamed Labour’s decision to scrap the Rwanda scheme for contributing to the rise in migrant crossings since the election.
He said hotels were being reopened for use as asylum accommodation through “diktat” from the Government, including the Roman Way hotel in his Staffordshire constituency.
“This is all in the context of a pledge by the party opposite in their manifesto in July to end asylum hotels. So you can imagine the devastation that so many constituents across the country are feeling when they see hotels being brought back into use, breaking a manifesto pledge from the party opposite,” he said.
“And it is a total
lack of transparency – there isn’t consultation with local authorities.
It’s a diktat that they receive with no support and no help.”...<<<Read More>>>...