The asylum system would “descend into chaos” if Labour refused to open more hotels for people seeking refuge in the UK, a Home Office minister has told the Guardian.
Angela Eagle, the minister for borders, security and asylum, said officials had been forced to find more private accommodation for new arrivals and blamed the backlog of tens of thousands of cases built up under the last government.
The government’s decision to open asylum hotels despite Keir Starmer’s pledge that he would close them have been condemned by the Tories and Reform.
In Labour’s election manifesto, Starmer said he would “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”.
In her first public comments on the development, Eagle said ministers had no choice but to make the temporary move after discovering nearly 120,000 unprocessed asylum claims after Labour took power.
But defunding the immigration desk was a surefire way to make a mountain out of a molehill they could then campaign on.
Amazes me people would vote Tory because of immigration when they had the reins for over a decade. They didn’t change it because they didn’t want to change anything, they just want people to get riled up about it
Friend, I have news for you. The Home Office has been utterly shit for decades. Not simply under the Conservatives.
Not disputing, just focus