The Minister for Immigration (Robert Jenrick) With permission,
Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on illegal migration.
The Government have made it our top priority to stop the boats,
because these crossings are not only illegal, dangerous and
unnecessary, but deeply unfair. They are unfair on those who are
genuinely in need of resettlement, as our finite capacity is taken
up by people—overwhelmingly young men—coming to the UK directly
from a place of...Request free trial
The Minister for Immigration ()
With permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will make a statement on
illegal migration.
The Government have made it our top priority to stop the boats,
because these crossings are not only illegal, dangerous and
unnecessary, but deeply unfair. They are unfair on those who are
genuinely in need of resettlement, as our finite capacity is
taken up by people—overwhelmingly young men—coming to the UK
directly from a place of safety in France, but most of all they
are unfair on the law-abiding British public who face the
real-world consequences of illegal migration through housing
waiting lists, strained public services and, at times, serious
community cohesion challenges, and it is the interests of the
British public that we have a duty to advance.
We have developed what is among the most comprehensive and robust
plans to tackle illegal migration in Europe, and over the last
year the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and I have focused on
delivering it. The plan starts with taking the fight to the
people-smuggling gangs upstream, long before they are even in
striking distance of the United Kingdom. We have already doubled
the funds for the organised immigration crime work of the
National Crime Agency, and at a meeting of the European Political
Community earlier this month the Prime Minister announced new,
tailored initiatives with Belgium, Bulgaria and Serbia, which
come in addition to the enhanced strategic partnerships that we
have already agreed this year with Italy and Turkey. Our two
agreements with the French Government have elevated our
co-operation to unprecedented levels. This is degrading the
organised immigration crime groups, and in the last few weeks new
physical barriers have been installed to make it considerably
harder for the flimsy dinghies to be launched.
As we are increasing disruption abroad, so we are restoring
deterrence at home. We are breaking the link between arriving
here illegally and a life in the UK. The number of removals of
those with no right to be in the UK has increased by more than
75% in comparison with last year’s figure. Since we struck our
enhanced returns agreement with Albania in December, we have
returned more than 4,100 Albanian immigration offenders, and, as
I saw for myself in Tirana last month, some of those individuals
are being returned home in as little as 48 hours.
In August we announced the biggest shake-up in a decade of the
penalties imposed on rogue employers and landlords who encourage
illegal migration by hiring or renting to illegal migrants, and
as we proceed with that, more unscrupulous businesses are getting
the knock on the door. We have increased the number of
enforcement raids by more than two thirds since this point last
year. The surge has led to a doubling in the number of fines
imposed on employers, and has tripled the number issued to
landlords. However, for those who are complicit in the business
model of the people smugglers, severe financial penalties are not
enough, which is why we have dramatically increased the number of
company directors who have been disqualified for allowing illegal
working.
Our concerted efforts at home and abroad are making progress. For
the first time since the phenomenon of small boat arrivals began
four years ago, they are down by more than a fifth in comparison
with those in the equivalent period in 2022, and in recent months
we have seen still further falls—and let me dispel the myth
peddled by some of our increasingly desperate opponents that that
is because of the weather. The weather conditions this year were
more favourable to small boat crossings than those in 2022, but
we have still seen a marked decrease. By contrast, in the year to
June 2023 detections of irregular border crossings at the
external borders of Europe increased by a third, and irregular
arrivals in Italy from across the Mediterranean have almost
doubled. However, we must and will go further to stop the boats
altogether. We remain confident of the legality of our Rwanda
partnership and its ability to break the business model of the
people smuggling gangs once and for all, and we look forward to
the judgment of the Supreme Court. As the success of our Albania
returns agreement has shown, with swift removals driving a 90%
reduction in the number of illegal migrants seeking to enter the
UK, deterrence works.
The real-world impacts of illegal migration on our communities
have been raised many times in the Chamber. One of the most
damaging manifestations of this problem has been the use of
hotels to meet our statutory obligation to house those who arrive
illegally and would otherwise be destitute. Ever since the Prime
Minister, the Home Secretary and I assumed office a year ago, we
have made it clear that that is completely unacceptable and must
end as soon as practicable. Those hotels should be assets for
their local communities, serving businesses and tourists and
hosting the life events that we treasure, such as weddings and
birthdays, rather than housing illegal migrants at an
unsustainable cost to the taxpayer.
We therefore took immediate action a year ago to reduce our
reliance on hotels. We significantly increased the amount of
dispersed accommodation, and we have increased funding for local
councils. We reformed the management of the existing estate: by
optimising double rooms and increasing the number of people
sharing rooms we have created thousands of additional beds, and
in doing so have avoided the need for a further 72 hotels. We
have mobilised the large disused military sites that are more
appropriate, and have worked closely with local authorities to
ensure that they have less impact on communities. We are in the
process of a re-embarkation on the barge in Portland, and, as of
23 October, occupancy had reached approximately 50 individuals.
That will continue as planned, in a phased manner, in the days
and weeks ahead.
Nearly a year on, as a result of the progress we have made to
stop the boats, I can inform the House that today the Home Office
wrote to local authorities and Members of Parliament to inform
them that we will now be exiting the first asylum hotels—hotels
in all four nations of the United Kingdom. The first 50 exits
will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of
January, with more tranches to follow shortly. But we will not
stop there: we will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop
the boats, and we will be able to exit more hotels. As we exit
those hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resources to
facilitate the orderly and effective management of the process
and limit the impact on local communities.
We made a clear commitment to the British public to stop the
boats, not because it would be easy but because it was, and
remains, the right thing to do. We are making solid progress, and
our commitment to this task is as strong as ever. We will
continue to act in the interests of the law-abiding majority, who
expect and deserve secure borders, and I commend this statement
to the House.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the shadow Minister.
1.28pm
(Aberavon) (Lab)
I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement.
At the time of the last election, the asylum backlog had already
spiralled under Conservative mismanagement, but the number of
small boats crossing the channel was close to zero, as was the
number of emergency hotels being used. If we fast-forward four
years, we see before us a picture of Tory boats chaos. For the
third year running, more than 25,000 people have crossed the
channel in small boats, while the number of hotels being used is
about 400, at an eye-watering cost to the taxpayer of £8 million
a day—higher than the cost last year. And what is the
Government’s response? A Rwanda plan, but they have sent more
Home Secretaries than asylum seekers to Rwanda; an Illegal
Migration Act that is counterproductive and has not even been
brought into full force yet; and a new barge that was meant to
bring down hotel costs, but has only added to them. Also, the
military bases promised by the Prime Minister last December are
still not ready. All of this has left the Prime Minister with an
asylum strategy this summer that was less akin to the Australian
asylum model that he is so desperate to replicate and more in
tune with the Australian cricket team during this summer’s Ashes:
cross your fingers and pray for rain. Surely the Prime Minister
knows that this was the wettest summer since 1912, and surely he
recognises the impact that this had on small boat crossings.
The Government also like to claim to be bringing the backlog
down, but it stands at 176,000. They like to talk about a legacy
backlog, but this is just nonsense. It is a figment of the Prime
Minister’s imagination. He is taking last year’s workload but
ignoring this year’s workload. The backlog is the backlog is the
backlog. You can slice the cake however you want and spin it
however you want, but the cake is still the same size: 176,000 in
the last quarterly figures—up, not down. As for those who are
being processed and rejected—slowly, it must be said, at half the
productivity of seven years ago—are they actually being returned?
Removals are down 70% since Labour left office, with a 40,000
removals backlog.
On the issue of hotel use, today’s announcement illustrates
better than any other the utter lack of ambition the Prime
Minister has for our country. It beggars belief that the Minister
has the brass neck to come here today to announce not that the
Government have cut the number of hotels being used but that they
simply plan to do so, and by a paltry 12%. Is that really it? Is
it really their ambition that there will still be 350 asylum
hotels in use at the end of the winter, despite promises last
year that they would end hotel use this year?
Further questions for the Minister. Is it really true that the
hotels he is considering closing will be in marginal
constituencies? Does he really think that the public might not
see through that ruse? Will he publish a list of the hotels he
plans to close over the next six months? And why does the
Minister not come back to update this Chamber when he has
actually achieved something—not when he plans to achieve
something or done a small part of what has been promised, but
when the Prime Minister has actually achieved what he said he was
going to achieve? At the moment, he sounds like an arsonist who
has burned our house down and is expecting us to thank him for
throwing a bucket of water on it.
Better still, why will this Government not get out of the way so
that we on these Benches can show the leadership shown by our
leader and our shadow Home Secretary on their trip to Europol
recently, where they set out Labour’s plans to stop the Tory
boats chaos by smashing the gangs, clearing the asylum backlog by
surging the number of caseworkers, ending hotel use and fixing
the asylum system, which successive Conservative Prime Ministers
have utterly broken after 13 years of neglect and
incompetence?
So it is all down to the weather again. Every time I come to this
Chamber, it is about the weather. The hon. Gentleman is becoming
the Michael Fish of British politics: he always gets the
forecasts wrong. The truth is that he cannot bear to admit that
our plan is actually starting to work. Returns are up, raids are
up, productivity is up 10 times and, above all, small boat
arrivals are down. We are closing hotels; he wants to open our
borders. The Government will never elevate the interests of
illegal migrants over those of the hard-working taxpayers of this
country. That is what we hold in our minds every day in this job,
and that is the difference between the Labour party and this
Government.
We used to think that the Labour party had no plan, but now we
know that it does not even want to stop the boats. In the summer,
the Leader of the Opposition said that, even if the Rwanda plan
was working, he would still scrap it. How telling was that? Even
if we were securing our borders, he would scrap it and wave
people into our country. He also said on his fabled trip to
Europe that he would strike a new deal with the EU, which would
bring thousands of people into the country. The new towns that he
announced at the Labour party conference would be filled with
illegal migrants. We will never do that. The Labour party’s
strategy is to force the British public to grudgingly accept mass
migration. We disagree. We believe that the British public
believe in secure borders and that they want a robust and fair
immigration and asylum system. Our plan is working. Don’t let
Labour ruin it.
(Ashford) (Con)
Any day when an Immigration Minister can come to this House and
give us good news is a day for celebration. My right hon. Friend
and his team are to be commended for the hard work that has gone
into the successes he has outlined today, and I hope that Ashford
will benefitfrom one of the forthcoming tranches of hotels being
closed. Can he also say whether the extra resources that have
clearly gone into clearing the long-term backlog are still
available, so that we will be able to cope with the constant flow
that one gets of asylum seekers and not see any future backlogs
building up?
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his good advice and
wise counsel. He had to clear up the mess left by the last Labour
Government, so he knows how challenging these situations can be.
We have put in place more resource. We met our target of 2,500
additional caseworkers to manage the asylum system. When I stood
at this Dispatch Box in my first week in this role, the Home
Office was making around 400 decisions a week. We are now making
4,500 a week, and I commend the civil servants at the Home Office
who have driven that extraordinary improvement in management,
grip and productivity. But we on this side of the House do not
believe that we can grant our way out of this challenge; we have
to stop the boats in the first place. That is why true deterrence
is so critical, and it is why our Rwanda partnership, which
Labour has tried to frustrate at every opportunity, is so
important to securing our borders.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
I call the SNP spokesman.
(Glasgow South West)
(SNP)
The Minister will know that Mears has recently signed a contract
with a hotel in Glasgow South West, so perhaps he can update us
on the status of that contract. He has mentioned the backlog. Not
everyone in a hotel in asylum accommodation is illegal; some will
be successful in being granted refugee status. Can he tell us
what discussions he is having with local authorities—I am
thinking of Glasgow City Council in particular—on supporting and
providing financial support for those successful refugees who
will have to leave their hotel or asylum accommodation following
a decision? Will he meet me and my Glasgow colleagues to discuss
this issue?
Can the Minister tell us the estimated total operational and
associated costs of this new system that he is creating,
including barges, military sites, detention facilities and
removal centres, alongside the proposed Rwanda deportations?
Finally, an investigation by “The News Agents” has found that
people traffickers say they are having an easier time sending
small boats across the channel because of Brexit, which removed
biometric system sharing and pan-European co-operation. What
steps is he taking to create a returns agreement with the
European Union, binding closer alignment with the EU and system
sharing?
Far be it from me to cast doubt on the journalism of “The News
Agents”, but I disagree with the premise of the hon. Gentleman’s
question. In this role, I have come to the view that leaving the
European Union was more important than ever because the migration
crisis being faced by Europe today, which is likely to grow every
year in the years and decades to come, will be very significant
and challenging. The ability to control our own borders and make
our own decisions is critical for the future of this country.
With respect to the situation in Glasgow, I would be happy to
meet the hon. Gentleman there. Glasgow has had a high
preponderance of asylum seekers, as he will know, but that was
the choice of the Scottish Government. To my eyes, they did not
want to house asylum seekers in other parts of Scotland. That is
now changing, but it does mean that there will be a particular
challenge in his community and I would be happy to meet him to
discuss that.
(Stone) (Con)
I commend my right hon. Friend and the Home Secretary for the
real progress that is now evident. It may not be sufficient for
many at the moment, but the real issue is, as I believe the
French are now beginning to understand—I would like confirmation
on that, if it is true—that the Human Rights Act, in our case,
and the European convention on human rights and the refugee
convention are not only a European problem but a global problem.
Does my right hon. Friend believe that the French are going to
make real changes on this? Is he in discussions with them? As I
have said for many years now, unless we sort this out, the
tangible benefits will not be as evident as they could be.
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his support over the last
year, in particular with our landmark Illegal Migration Act 2023.
He is right to say—this is a point I made in a speech at Policy
Exchange earlier this year and the Home Secretary made in a
speech in Washington more recently—that the international
framework, whether it be the European convention on human rights
or the refugee convention, although undoubtedly well intentioned
at the time, is now in need of serious reform. Today we find
ourselves in a world in which hundreds of millions of people are
on the move and eligible for refugee status. The situation is
incomparable to the one we experienced in the immediate aftermath
of the second world war.
The signatories and authors of those documents would be appalled
to see some of the abuses we see in our present system, which
frustrates our ability to support those who are truly in need and
fleeing war and persecution. Across Government, the Prime
Minister, the Home Secretary and I are raising this with all our
partners and allies at every opportunity.
(Kingston upon Hull North)
(Lab)
At the Public Accounts Committee in July, Home Office officials
told me that the Government were paying for 5,000 empty hotel
beds as a buffer in case of an upsurge in people travelling
across the channel. Could the Minister update the House on how
many empty hotel beds the Government are currently paying
for?
I would hope the right hon. Lady welcomes today’s news that, as a
result of the good progress we have made on reducing small boat
crossings, we are now in a position to begin closing those
hotels. It is true that the Home Office kept a proportion of
hotels precisely to ensure that we did not find ourselves in the
position we saw last autumn, when I took on this position and we
had problems at the Manston facility in Kent. As a result of the
significantly fewer numbers crossing the channel this year, those
beds have not been necessary, which is one of the many
contributory factors behind our ability to start closing the
hotels.
(South Holland and The Deepings)
(Con)
The Minister and the Home Secretary are to be commended for their
crusade against devilish people smugglers, dodgy lawyers and
deluded interest groups, but will he acknowledge that the bar
needs to be raised for asylum applications? Far more applicants
are granted asylum in this country than the European average. The
standard of proof needs to be improved.
Does the Minister also accept that, while these improved numbers
are to be welcomed, the asylum system needs fundamental change so
that it is only for people in genuine fear of persecution, and so
that economic migrants who just want a better life cannot come
here using asylum as justification?
I strongly agree with my right hon. Friend. The Home Secretary
and I are driven by two ambitions that must come together. One is
efficiency in the system, and the other is rigour and integrity.
We have to ensure that, as we process claims faster than ever
before, we are rigorous in interrogating the evidence and weeding
out those individuals who have absolutely no right to be here in
the United Kingdom. We want to ensure that the UK is a place of
refuge for those in genuine peril, but not a home for economic
migrants. It has to be said that a very large proportion of the
people coming to the UK are, in one form or another, economic
migrants. At the very least they are asylum shoppers, because
almost all of them come from a place of evident safety in
France.
(Knowsley) (Lab)
The Minister has heard me say before that the use of hotels
serves nobody. It does not serve the taxpayer, it does not serve
local communities and it certainly does not serve those people
seeking refuge in this country, so the fact the hotels are to be
stopped is good news. Can he give me some indication of where the
hotel in Knowsley fits into his timetable? Does he agree that
people need to tone down their rhetoric and stop peddling false
narratives about what is going on with refugees? Frankly, all
that does is worsen community relations.
I am grateful for the work that the right hon. Gentleman and I
have done on this issue, particularly on the very serious events
that took place at the hotel he mentions. I contacted his office
earlier today to notify him that the hotel will be included in
the first tranche of hotel closures. The incident he experienced
highlights why this is not an appropriate form of accommodation,
as it took from his community a very valued asset that people
used for weddings, birthdays and special life events. It was also
a source of serious community tension, which is why we now have
to exit the hotels as swiftly as we can. It is also a lesson to
us that we have to be very alive to the challenges both of high
levels of illegal migration and of high levels of legal migration
that make it difficult for us to successfully integrate people
into our communities.
(Harwich and North Essex)
(Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his robust and confident
statement, and for the significant progress he has been able to
report to the House today. Can he also confirm that the hotel on
the A12 near Langham in my Harwich and North Essex constituency
is one of those that will no longer be used for asylum
seekers?
I am grateful to my hon. Friend. The Home Office has a
long-standing policy of not naming the hotels wherever possible,
but I can say that a hotel in his constituency is part of the
first tranche of closures. If he has not already been notified,
he should be notified by the Home Office very soon.
(Tiverton and Honiton)
(LD)
The Liberal Democrats submitted a freedom of information request
to the Home Office to ask about the cost of the Bibby Stockholm.
We asked about the cost to taxpayers of buying the barge, as well
as the estimated cost of running it over the next 12 months. The
cost is estimated at £20 million a year, which is well over
£300,000 a week. Why has the Home Office refused to put this
information in the public domain? And why has it declared that to
do so would not be in the public interest?
The hon. Gentleman is essentially a humanitarian nimby. He comes
to the House to say that we should be a welcoming nation and
invite more people here, but he does not want to face up to the
consequences of where those people should be housed. Behind his
question is a view that I think is quite offensive to the British
public, which is that it is okay to house British oil and gas
workers on this barge, but not illegal migrants. I very much
doubt his constituents would agree with him.
(Dover) (Con)
I assure Members that the sun often shines on our blessed corner
of Kent. Indeed, we have had a heatwave on one or two occasions
this year, so let us not have any more of this weather
nonsense.
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his update. We need to
put on record the immense effort that he and everyone on the
Government side have made to secure this 20% reduction. It is the
first sustained reduction in small boat crossings, and that is
welcome. It shows that it can be done, and that this Conservative
Government are doing what they said they would do. Will he join
me in thanking those in my constituency who work at Border Force
and the small boats command centre and are working hard to secure
our border and keep us safe, as well as the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution and coastguard, who do a very difficult job,
day in, day out? I thank them for all their work.
I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to all those who work at
our facilities in Dover and on the south coast. This is very
challenging and difficult work. At times, they have had to cope
with immensely difficult experiences, and they have saved
hundreds, indeed thousands, of lives in the process.
The point that should be reinforced to my hon. Friend’s
constituents is that, although today marks significant
progress—certainly very significant progress compared with what
we see in other European countries—it is clearly not enough. Her
constituents want us to stop the boats entirely, which is what we
are setting out to do. Today is not a day for triumphalism. It is
a milestone, and tomorrow we get back to work and get back to
stopping the boats.
(Hayes and Harlington)
(Lab)
It is important, as we develop policy, to try to identify issues
that might come up further down the line. As the Minister knows,
in my constituency, large numbers of asylum seekers are being
processed—I congratulate him on that. Most are gaining
status—understandably, because most of them have come from war
zones—and they will be seeking employment. On identifying
possible issues down the line, has the Minister seen the report
by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in The Independent,
which is based on the Home Office’s findings on the treatment of
migrant workers? It identified wage theft, forced unpaid
overtime, racist abuse, illegal charging of fees for jobs, and
insanitary living and working conditions. Will he review the
mechanisms for the monitoring of and enforcement against abuse of
migrant workers?
That is of concern to me and the Home Secretary. We are aware of
abuse in some of our communities, and we work closely with
immigration enforcement and other agencies to try to bear down on
it, because it is not right for individuals to be exploited in
the way that the right hon. Gentleman describes. Also, there is a
strong correlation between unscrupulous employers who act in that
way and other serious failings, such as not paying tax, poor
health and safety standards and poor product standards. That is
why we need to weed out such behaviour.
Sir (Bournemouth West) (Con)
My right hon. Friend knows from the Adjournment debate we had and
our correspondence over the summer the extent to which illegal
migration is an issue in my constituency. Some colleagues talk
about “a” migrant hotel, but we have multiple such hotels. I
welcome the Minister’s announcement today that one of those
hotels will be taken back. Sir Humphrey used to say that
“Gratitude is merely a lively expectation of favours to
come.”
In that spirit, may I ask my right hon. Friend when we can have
the rest of our hotels back?
As we make more progress on stopping the boats, so we will make
more progress on closing the hotels. I am grateful to my right
hon. Friend for his work. His constituents have experienced the
reality of illegal migration, not just in hotels that should be
used for tourist purposes being taken away from them, but through
a serious murder in the community, which should give us all pause
for thought and urge us to redouble our efforts to stop people
coming to the UK in that manner.
(Edinburgh South West)
(SNP)
Unlike many Conservative Members, I am glad that the United
Kingdom remains a signatory to the European convention on human
rights. That means that refugees and asylum seekers who come to
the UK have exactly the same rights as each of us in this House.
That includes the right not to be subject to inhumane or
degrading treatment. Many of my constituents are concerned about
the conditions in which refugees and asylum seekers have been
kept in the past. They were worried about the Legionella on the
barge, and they saw the conditions in Manston and Napier—the
overcrowding, and the worst spread of diphtheria in decades. What
can the Minister do to reassure my constituents that the human
rights of refugees and asylum seekers will be respected while
they are in his Government’s care?
We take seriously our obligations to treat anyone in our care
with dignity and compassion, and when we or our providers fall
below that standard, it is right that we take action against
those involved. The situation is challenging to manage; the hon.
and learned Lady knows that from her city of Edinburgh, which
houses comparatively few asylum seekers and has no migrant
hotels, and whose council explicitly turned down the opportunity
to house asylum seekers on the very vessel that it used for
Ukrainian refugees. If she wants to support further asylum
seekers coming to her community, she has to find accommodation
for them.
It’s a Labour council, not an SNP one.
Madam Deputy Speaker ( )
Order. Enough. We have had that question, and we are now moving
on to the next one.
(Chelmsford) (Con)
My constituents have welcomed Ukrainians into their homes and
Hong Kong Chinese into their communities, and our excellent
domestic abuse services mean that we often give women from all
over the country a fresh place to restart their life. However,
that means that there is huge pressure on local schools and
housing, and the more than 400 asylum seekers who have arrived in
Chelmsford since early summer risk bringing those services to
breaking point. Although I welcome today’s announcements, I am
concerned that Chelmsford is not on the list. Will the Minister,
who is doing an excellent job, work closely with those in the
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to look at
housing for those who are granted asylum, so that the need is
shared fairly across the country and does not just create extra
pressure on areas that are already hotspots?
My right hon. Friend has been assiduous in raising concerns about
the particular hotel in her constituency—
Two.
The two hotels; my right hon. Friend corrects me. I would
obviously like them to be closed at the earliest opportunity, but
today we are setting out the beginning of a phased closure, with
the first 50 hotels being notified. I hope that more will follow
in the weeks and months ahead. I am fully aware of the situation
in Chelmsford that she described, and I would like it to be
resolved.
I take my right hon. Friend’s broader point about the importance
of the Home Office working closely with the Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the Under-Secretary of
State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, my hon. Friend
for Kensington (), is sitting beside me.
She and I and the Secretary of State are working closely together
to ensure that local authorities can plan for any new individuals
who might live in their area.
(Walthamstow) (Lab/Co-op)
Further to that response, the Minister talks about the planning
between the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
and the Home Office, but I wonder what experience he has of the
London private rental market. In my constituency, refugees who
have been granted asylum are being kicked out of their hotels by
the Home Office contractor within a week.
indicated dissent.
The Minister shakes his head, but I am happy to share with him
the letter that shows that. No assistance has been provided for
those people. They are being told to go back to the council, but
the council does not have time to follow up with them, so they
end up at our local homeless night shelter, which will ultimately
cost us all more than an orderly system. The Minister is shaking
his head, but what does his data show about the number of
refugees granted asylum while staying in migrant hotels who have
been rehoused? Will he look at a more orderly system, and work
with those of us on the ground to ensure that today’s
announcement will not just be a way of passing on the cost to
another Department?
First the hon. Lady wanted us to clear the backlog; now she does
not want us to do that because of the consequences of clearing
it. Perhaps it would be better if she just supported us in trying
to stop illegal migrants coming to the country in the first
place. On her specific points, it is not correct that the Home
Office gives seven days’ notice; it gives 28. [Interruption.] I
am happy to look at what she is waving in my face, but I assure
her that the policy is 28 days’ notice. The key point is that
everybody who is granted asylum has access to the benefits system
and can get a job. Given that the overwhelming majority are young
men, that is exactly what they should do now: get on and
contribute to British society, and integrate into our
country.
(Stoke-on-Trent South)
(Con)
I am pleased that the Minister has kept to his commitment that
the North Stafford Hotel in Stoke-on-Trent will be one of the
first to close. That is happening only because of the
Government’s work to tackle illegal migration and stop the boats.
Does my right hon. Friend agree that areas such as
Stoke-on-Trent, which have done more than their fair share of
contributing, should not continue to see more asylum seekers, and
have more refugees settled? We need to ensure that there is a
fair share across the country.
I am delighted that the hotel to which my hon. Friend refers is
in the first tranche. He and I visited it with his colleagues
from Stoke, and it was clearly a classic case of why we should
not use such hotels. It was a highly valued and prominent
business and community hotel—a landmark in Stoke-on-Trent that is
familiar to anyone who passes through the station. I am pleased
to announce that it will return to its proper use very soon.
(Glasgow North) (SNP)
I think that the Minister recognises the acute pressures that
local authorities could face when asylum seekers who are rapidly
granted status move out of hotels, then risk becoming homeless.
He said that he will meet my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow
South West () to discuss the situation
in Glasgow. Will he extend that invitation to the leader of the
city council and other stakeholders, to ensure that Glasgow and
other local authorities are properly supported and so can
continue to extend a welcome to refugees?
It will be an interesting conversation with the leader of Glasgow
City Council, because as I recall the council does not want to
take any more of our refugees. It put out a statement saying it
would not use a barge, even though Glasgow had itself used a
barge for Ukrainian refugees. I do not know why a Ukrainian is
different from an Afghan or a Syrian; perhaps the hon. Gentleman
should explain those double standards.
(Torbay) (Con)
Having stood at that Dispatch Box myself discussing this sort of
subject, I imagine my right hon. Friend is much happier to come
to the House with today’s statement than with some of the things
we sometimes end up having to discuss. I must have missed all
those Opposition demands to remove more people and take a tougher
stance.
I welcome the message regarding the Esplanade in Paignton and my
right hon. Friend’s confirmation this morning. It is appreciated.
Can he assure me that we will pursue measures such as Greek-style
accommodation centres and ensure an adequate supply of dispersed
accommodation, fairly distributed across the United
Kingdom—including the 31 of 32 areas of Scotland that used to
refuse it—so that we do not have to resort to hotels again in the
future?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need a fair and
equitable system. That is why he contributed to the creation of
the national dispersal model, which we continue to pursue. We
have now created the first large sites: we have stood up our site
at Wethersfield in Essex and we are proceeding to stand up the
site in Lincolnshire, as well as the barge in Portland. Why are
we doing that? It is because we do not want the UK to be
considered a soft touch. It is not right that someone who might
have been sleeping in a camp in France comes across in a small
boat and finds himself in a Holiday Inn in Oxford. That makes the
UK a laughing stock. We had to change that, which is why we have
put in place those larger sites. They are more appropriate, they
save the taxpayer money, and they send a signal about the
strength of the UK’s resolve to tackling this issue.
(Stockton North) (Lab)
The Minister is very selective with his dodgy statistics, but
what I would like to know is whether he is still planning to site
an accommodation barge on Teesside.
We are always looking for further locations, but we do not
currently have any agreement with ports in Teesside.
(Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for the work he has done to bring
down the number of boat crossings and to speed up people being
sent back. I also thank him personally for coming to
Stoke-on-Trent to see the challenges we have. My hon. Friend and
neighbour the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South () mentioned the hotel that is
the gateway to our city and symbolic of what we aspire to:
levelling up. I am grateful that it is to be one of the 50.
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s kind words and for the
leadership she has shown in arguing on behalf of her constituents
for that migrant hotel to close. Her argument was grounded in
levelling up, to which she is very committed. I know from working
with Stoke-on-Trent City Council on many different things in the
recent past how important that gateway to the city is, and how
much investment has been secured to improve it, so that leisure
and business travellers arrive in that great city and see it at
its best. Closing that hotel will, I hope, play a small part in
turning that tide.
(North Down) (Alliance)
I want to push back against this dangerous “community cohesion”
narrative that has been used by the Minister and others today and
previously. The UK has taken fewer asylum seekers per head than
most other European countries. Indeed, the UK has been shaped and
reshaped by successive waves of immigration over the centuries. I
speak as one who has two hotels in my constituency, so I am not a
nimby on this. Most of the asylum seekers I have spoken to want
to contribute to society, they want to work and they want to
integrate. Does the Minister recognise the dangerous,
slippery-slope implications of some of the rhetoric he is
using?
The hon. Gentleman is not correct in his presentation that the UK
is less generous than other European countries. Statistics are
hard to compare, because we are a destination country. Many of
those who come here and claim asylum stay here, while in
countries elsewhere in Europe people claim in multiple locations
while they are transiting through them. The most important
statistic is that since 2015, the UK has issued 530,000
humanitarian visas—more than at any time in our modern history.
That is a very large number of people to absorb into our
communities, to support properly and to integrate, and it is one
of the reasons why local authorities are under great pressure at
the moment. We have to be realistic about that. It is why we have
said we will put a cap on safe and legal routes, and why soon we
will consult local authorities, including the hon. Gentleman’s,
to determine the true capacity, so that the statements we make in
this House match the reality on the ground.
(Walsall North) (Con)
The strain on public services caused by illegal migration is
often felt the most by smaller towns, so may I ask my right hon.
Friend to make such areas the focus of his efforts to close
migrant hotels in the future?
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It is undoubtedly true
that communities with fewer hotels have fewer public services. It
is harder for people to get around because public transport is
weaker. It is therefore more impactful when the Home Office takes
hotels in such places, and we should consider that as we proceed
to exit hotels.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I welcome the Minister’s statement and his determination to
deliver solutions. It is clear from what he says that solutions
are coming. I welcome the news this morning of the intention to
cut the costly hotel bills, but will the Minister clarify whether
that is because we are sending unsuccessful applicants somewhere
else, and if so, where they are going? It cannot be a case of
cutting hotel bills while increasing council costs by the same
amount. Will the Minister also confirm that local women and
children will be prioritised in housing over any young, healthy,
single illegal migrant male?
I share my hon. Friend’s sentiment and conviction. Of course we
should be a decent, generous and compassionate country to those
coming here from places of peril, but we also have to prioritise
the interests of British taxpayers. We should not be elevating
the interests of illegal migrants over those of the communities
we are sent here to serve. Those who are granted asylum have
access to the benefits system and they can work. We should all
encourage them to do so and to integrate into British
society.
(Stroud) (Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend and the Prime Minister for listening
to my Stroud constituents’ concerns about illegal migration and
speeding up processing, and for taking seriously my calls to
close a migrant hotel in my patch. I caution Labour Front
Benchers against playing political games over which hotels are
closing, because not only do they have no plan themselves, but
they do not know what many of our constituents have been through,
because Members of Parliament, local police and local residents
have worked hard to keep incidents out of the newspapers, so that
they do not escalate. Will my right hon. Friend please clarify
when we will receive more information about the closures, and
confirm that, in the event of a closure in my patch, there will
be close working with Gloucestershire County Council, which has
been very solid on this?
I thank my hon. Friend for her good work representing her
constituents on this issue in her characteristically sensible and
calm manner. I am pleased that we have come to a good outcome in
her case. The Home Office will write today or in the coming days
to all the local authorities and MPs with hotels in the first 50.
In the weeks ahead, we will consider further tranches as we make
further progress on stopping the boats. We will put in place the
processes and personnel required to support local authorities as
we decant individuals from those locations.
(Boston and Skegness)
(Con)
Skegness is a tourist economy, and hoteliers have told me that
the use of hotels in Skegness for illegal migrants has led to
bookings being cancelled; it has been associated with serious
crime. We have also seen marches hijacked by the far right, even
though they know that that is not representative of local
people’s legitimate fears. I therefore hugely welcome today’s
announcement that two hotels in Skegness will no longer be
required for Government use. That is immense progress, but does
my right hon. Friend the Minister agree with me that the local
council and Government as a whole should work as quickly as
possible to get those hotels returned to their proper use, rather
than left to rot by unscrupulous owners?
I am pleased that some of the hotels in my hon. Friend’s
constituency will now be closed. He has seen just how challenging
illegal migration can be, not least in the protests in his town
and the strain that it has put on community cohesion. That is why
we must stop the boats and reduce the number of people coming
over in that manner. We will work with hoteliers as far as we can
to help them to reopen their hotels successfully. The hotels are
on different notice periods and that is one reason the
announcement that we are making today is staggered. The majority
are on three-month notice periods, which gives those hoteliers
and their communities the time to prepare, take bookings, hire
staff and come back to life.
(Kettering) (Con)
I thank the Minister for the real progress that has been made in
cutting the small boat crossings, and also, last month, for
closing the Royal Hotel Kettering as an asylum hotel. When does
the Minister expect to close the Rothwell House Hotel in Rothwell
as an asylum accommodation centre?
I am pleased that we were able to close the first hotel in my
hon. Friend’s constituency the other day. I know that it was one
he felt very strongly about indeed. As we make further progress
with stopping the boats, we will be able to close more hotels,
and he has made a strong case for the second one in his
constituency.
(Harrow East) (Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the progress that he is
making. I am not sure what consideration he has given to this,
but he has cited agreements on returns to a number of countries
and also agreements with France. He may have been aware that
France is announcing proposals to cancel visas, remove the right
of leave to remain and force people to leave France. That
potentially runs the risk of many more people choosing to take
the dangerous route across the channel and come to our country.
Will he take action to make sure that anyone who is in that
position from France is immediately removed from this
country?
The comments that my hon. Friend has seen reported with respect
to France are indicative of the much stronger postures being
adopted by most European countries on this issue. In fact, Labour
is now at odds with the common view of most of Europe today. Most
European countries sense the extreme importance of this situation
and are taking more robust action. That is generally to the
benefit of the UK, as we are a destination country after people
have passed through many others. We want to continue to work
productively with France. In recent months, we have seen good
work by the French, particularly the Gendarmerie and the préfet
in northern France, who have been extremely helpful to us, by for
example, as I said in my opening remarks, putting up barriers on
canals and estuaries, which has made it more difficult for small
boats to leave. We want to keep that good work going.
(Erewash) (Con)
In welcoming today’s statement, I also ask my right hon. Friend
to deliver on the commitment that he made to me at the Dispatch
Box on 5 September and confirm that the two hotels on Bostock’s
Lane in Sandiacre are at the top of his priority list for
closure. If he cannot give me that good news, why not?
I did make a promise a year ago when I took on this role that we
would close hotels, and I am pleased to be able to deliver on
that today. We will be writing today or tomorrow to all those MPs
and councils that are part of the first tranche. I am happy to
stay in touch with my hon. Friend if she is not part of that
tranche and to say to her that we will do everything we can to
make sure that her hotels are exited very soon.
(The Wrekin) (Con)
I welcome the Minister’s statement today and the robust action
that the Government are taking. Will he put on record that this
country is still open to legal migration routes and that it is
just the illegal migration routes that we are tackling? On the
issue of the whole of Government approach, we are, of course,
tackling the pull factors, but the push factors out of places
such as north Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, which he recently
visited, include climate change, conflict, famine and poor
governance. What more can we do across Government to stop those
push factors?
We want the UK to be a strategic partner of choice for all
countries—whether in Europe or further upstream, such as in north
Africa—that share our determination to tackle this issue. That is
why I have travelled to a number of those countries, including
Turkey, Tunisia and Algeria, to build relationships with them so
that we can partner on organised immigration, crime and border
security. I also work closely with the Foreign Secretary and the
Development Minister to ensure that a large proportion of our
foreign aid budget goes to refugee-producing countries. It is
much better that the UK uses its resources upstream to support
vulnerable people than always reaching to migration as the first
response.
(Elmet and Rothwell)
(Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for the engagement and time he has
given to discuss the hotels in my constituency. Can he confirm
that the Holiday Inn in Garforth and the Mercure Hotel in
Wetherby, which are currently empty, will not be used for asylum
seekers down the line? May I also take this opportunity to ask on
behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton () that the military base
at Linton-on-Ouse, which was deemed to be thoroughly
inappropriate at the time it was put forward, will not come
forward in any future plans as we reduce the need for
accommodation?
We do not have a plan to make use of the site at Linton-on-Ouse
that was previously considered. With respect to my right hon.
Friend’s constituency, we will be writing to Members of
Parliament and councils today, and if he is not fortunate enough
to be in that first tranche, I assure him that there will be
further tranches to come. We want to exit the hotels in their
entirety; that does require us to keep making good progress with
stopping the boats.
(Hartlepool) (Con)
I, too, welcome everything that I have heard my right hon. Friend
say today. On Saturday, we witnessed the most appalling scenes of
lawbreaking on the streets of our capital. Can the Minister
reassure me that anyone found to have broken our laws and incited
racial hatred and violence in this country who is here as an
asylum seeker, or on a visa, including students, will have that
status revoked and be removed?
I have been very clear that people who spread hate and division
in our country have no right to be here. Having a visa is a
privilege, not an entitlement, and any foreign national who
conducts themselves in that manner falls below the standards that
we expect in our country, and will find that their visa is
revoked and that they are expelled. We have already begun that
process in a small number of cases, and I have written to all
chief constables across England and Wales, inviting them to bring
to our attention at the Home Office any examples that we should
consider.
(Ruislip, Northwood and
Pinner) (Con)
I was in northern France last week and saw very large numbers of
people, visible in public spaces, waiting to put their lives at
risk to make the journey across the channel to the UK. Does my
right hon. Friend agree that the work being done with the French
authorities has been a very important part of reducing the
numbers crossing the channel? Will he commit to doing further
work to develop what is happening, particularly in the area
around Dunkirk, to prevent people moving away from the beaches,
seeking to evade detection by the authorities in the channel, and
using the network of canals to put asylum seekers in small boats
across the channel?
I wish to put on record the Government’s thanks to the French
authorities for the work they have done over the course of this
year. Of course, there is more to be done. We are always
encouraging our French friends to go further, but they have put
in place a number of significant steps, including the
infrastructure that my hon. Friend describes, which is making it
hard for so-called taxi boats to go through the canals and
estuaries and out into the English channel. We are also working
with Belgium, which is another important partner through which a
number of migrants, engines and boats pass. The Prime Minister
announced recently in Granada a new partnership with the
Government of Belgium to deepen our ties in that regard.
(Buckingham) (Con)
I very much welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement,
particularly the news that, although there is a long way to go to
completely stop the boats, there has been a significant
reduction. Likewise, I welcome the news on the first 50 hotels
and was grateful to receive confirmation from his officials this
morning that the Best Western in Buckingham would close on 23
November. However, given that I had previously been told that it
would close on 9 September, may I ask him to confirm that these
new dates are final and cannot be delayed, postponed or changed,
and that the hotel will absolutely close on 23 November?
Absolutely. I hope the letter he has received is written in
blood. That hotel will close on the date in the letter.
(West Bromwich West)
(Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the work he has done on
this issue. I have seen at first hand how hard he has worked over
the last 12 months to make sure we make progress. On the upstream
work, one thing we need to get a grip of is the industry of
producing the crafts that are carrying these people across the
channel. What work is he doing with our law enforcement and
intelligence agencies to try to smash that industry, which is
clearly an important part of the broader picture of stopping the
boats once and for all?
My hon. Friend, who was a superb Parliamentary Private Secretary
in the Home Office until recently, knows that we have worked very
hard on smashing the people-smuggling gangs not just on the goal
line of the beaches of northern France but further up the pitch
in places such as Turkey and north Africa. That involves a lot of
work by the National Crime Agency, Border Force and the security
services in partnership with allies in those areas. We have
signed important agreements on that over the summer, including
with Turkey.
(Ipswich) (Con)
The Minister deserves great credit for all the work he has done
on this issue. I am really pleased that the Novotel in Ipswich
will be put back to its proper use. At the heart of this issue is
fairness, and when some of my constituents who are struggling to
pay their energy bills and put food on the table see men—and they
are all men—living in a four-star hotel, going to the buffet
every day and not paying a penny, it strikes at the heart of that
fairness. Does the Minister agree that those constituents who
used to work in the hotel and were pressured to resign should be
offered their jobs back, ideally on better terms than before?
That is also connected to the fairness point.
I feel very strongly that we are sent to this place to represent
the interests of our constituents, and we should not elevate the
interests of illegal migrants over those of the communities we
are elected to serve. That is the approach that my hon. Friend
has taken in fighting tenaciously to get that hotel closed to
asylum seekers and returned to the community uses that his
constituents value. We want to see more such hotels closed across
the country.
(Bosworth) (Con)
I am grateful to the Minister for announcing that 50 hotels will
close. Will he consider putting a list in the Library so that we
are able to see the names—I have hotels bordering my constituency
but not actually in it—and will he do that for further tranches
too? The Government propose putting caps on the number of illegal
migrants we are willing to take. When will that be brought
forward for a vote, and when will the consultation finish, so
that we can manage the demand?
We will not publish the list under long-standing Home Office
practice, as we are advised by the police that it is preferable
not to name the hotels because we have seen protests and
community tensions in the recent past.
We legislated for the cap in the Illegal Migration Act 2023, and
we will shortly publish the consultation, which will ask every
local authority how much capacity it has to house individuals who
come to the UK through safe and legal routes. We will move away
from an era in which we in Westminster posture and virtue signal
while our local communities and councils have to pick up the
bill. As a result of that consultation, we will bring forward our
proposal to Parliament and have a vote on it, if colleagues so
wish.
(Runnymede and Weybridge)
(Con)
I thank my right hon. Friend for his announcements and the
progress in this area. We urgently need to move people out of
hotels and to instead provide stable, cost-effective
accommodation that meets the needs of asylum seekers and the
communities we serve. We all need to do our bit. We have received
proposals from Home Office officials for asylum accommodation
locally that would not work. The officials have been very
helpful, but will the Minister agree to meet me and Runnymede
Borough Council leader Tom Gracey to discuss alternative
proposals to do our bit?
I would be pleased to do so. One innovation that we have started
this week is to write to all local authorities with an open
offer: if they can bring forward better proposals for asylum
accommodation than the Home Office’s providers, we would be happy
to work directly with them. If my hon. Friend’s local council has
ideas that would be more suitable, better value for money and
more in line with the wishes of the local community, we will take
them very seriously.
(Stoke-on-Trent North)
(Con)
I congratulate my right hon. Friend and thank him for hearing the
many thousands of voices across Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove
and Talke who signed my petition to end Serco’s abuse of
Stoke-on-Trent and get one of the two hotels closed. That is in
stark contrast to Stoke-on-Trent Labour, which allowed us to
become a dumping ground after it signed up to the asylum
voluntary dispersal scheme. Labour is now led by a Leader of the
Opposition who wants us to surrender our borders to Brussels and
move them to the Mediterranean—[Interruption.] The shadow
Immigration Minister also let the mask slip at Labour party
conference by basically claiming that anyone who wants to control
our borders is xenophobic. I note the moan from that Dispatch Box
at the news that Stoke-on-Trent will have one of its hotels shut.
Can the Minister tell me when the other hotel in Stoke-on-Trent
will face closure? I hope it is as soon as possible, because
Stoke-on-Trent has done its fair share already.
No one in this place has fought harder to end the use of asylum
hotels than my hon. Friend and his colleagues in Stoke-on-Trent.
That is why it is so important that we have delivered on our
promise to do so. We are stopping the boats and making progress,
but there is still a long way to go. We want to stop the boats in
their entirety, and as we do so more hotels in his constituency
and elsewhere will close. The public can see what is happening:
we are closing hotels, but the Opposition want to open our
borders.
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