Rise in use of hotels used by asylum seekers, says minister

Dame Angela, the minister for asylum and border security, said the government was continuing to identify alternative accommodation.

While acknowledging that hotel use had increased since the election, she pointed out that it had previously peaked at over 400 hotels under the Conservatives.

She was responding to an urgent question from Sir Gavin about a hotel in his Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge constituency.

Given Labour’s promise to end the practice of using hotels to house new arrivals, he said “you can imagine the devastation that so many constituents and constituents across the country are feeling when they’re seeing hotels being brought back into use”.

He also accused the Home Office of a “total lack of transparency”, saying local authorities were not being consulted. “It’s a diktat that they receive with no support and no help,” he added.

Sir Gavin said the number of people crossing the English Channel since Labour had come to power was 19% up on the same period last year.

Dame Angela attacked the Conservatives’ record on asylum, particularly their claim that their Rwanda scheme was a deterrent.

“From the day it was announced to the day it was scrapped, 83,500 people crossed the channel in small boats. If that’s the definition of a deterrent then I thin he [Sir Gavin] needs to look it up on the dictionary,” she said.