Sir Keir Starmer has been warned that he must stop the use of asylum hotels sooner than promised. Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw, leads the caucus of 40 MPs in the party’s traditional heartlands, where Labour is under increasing pressure to clear the backlog amid pressure from Reform UK among voters.
Last week, violence erupted in Epping after the alleged sexual assault of a local 14-year-old girl, while protests have been held at several other sites across the country in opposition to asylum seekers being housed in hotels at the public’s expense. The Government has vowed to end the use of hotels as a means of housing asylum seekers by 2029, but the chairman of Labour’s Red Wall group of MPs has warned that the practice must stop before then. But Ms White says that the practice must be ended “a lot, lot quicker than that.”
She told the Telegraph: “I’ve heard ministers saying they share the frustration on the number of small boats that continue to come across and I know they’re listening because I constantly go on about it.
“There’s a commitment to close down the hotels by the end of the parliamentary term. I think we all want it to be a lot, lot quicker than that.”
Currently, around 32,000 people are being held in approximately 210 hotels around the country as they wait for their application to be processed.
Earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron urged the UK to reduce the factors that make the country so appealing to illegal migrants, during his three day state visit.
He said: “France and the United Kingdom have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness.
“We will only arrive at a lasting and effective solution with action at the European level by addressing migration pull factors.”
Ms White believes that one way to limit the incentives would be to introduce ID cards, which would make it more difficult for those without the right to remain in the UK to obtain things such as employment.
Discussing the anger felt by many of her constituents, she added: “There is a huge sense of unfairness because people work hard here in this country and commit to supporting the country and then there’s the sense that what asylum hotels cost is a huge drag on what should be invested into our NHS, our schools and our infrastructure.
“So they have to close, we have to get those asylum hotels cleared out.”
The Government has continually pledged to “smash the gangs” as a means of targeting the organised crime that facilitates the movement of people into the UK.
But so far this year, more than 20,000 people have crossed the English Channel, although the Government believes that they have taken action to tackle the crisis.
A Government spokesman said: “Since taking office, we have taken immediate action to fix the asylum system and have started closing down hotels and removing more than 35,000 people with no right to be here.”