Conservative immigration minister Robert Jenrick has been condemned for claiming that Labour’s planned new towns would soon be “filled with illegal migrants”.
The Tory minister ramped up the rhetoric in the Commons on Tuesday – arguing that Labour’s strategy was to “wave in” migrants and “force the British public to grudgingly accept mass migration”.
Refugee campaigners accused Mr Jenrick of “hostile” and “dangerous” language – warning that it could have damaging consequences for vulnerable people in the asylum system.
It follows home secretary Suella Braverman’s Tory conference speech in which she warned that Britain faces a “hurricane” of migrants – suggesting “millions” of people around the world were trying to come to the UK.
The latest comments came as Mr Jenrick announced that the number of hotels used to house migrants will be cut by 50 over the next three months.
The Home Office minister attacked Sir Keir Starmer for saying he would scrap the plan to send small boat arrivals on one-way flights to Rwanda. “Even if we were securing our borders, [Sir Keir] would scrap it and wave people into our country,” claimed the immigration minister.
“He also said on his fabled trip to Europe he would strike a new deal with the EU which would bring thousands into the country – the new towns that he announced at the Labour conference would be filled with illegal migrants.”
Last month the Labour leader said was prepared to do a deal which would involve the UK taking a quota of legal asylum seekers who arrive in the bloc, in exchange for the ability to return people crossing the Channel. But Mr Starmer insisted that Tory claims it would let in tens of thousands were “nonsense”.
Responding to Mr Jenrick’s Commons outburst, the Refugee Council’s Tamsin Baxter said: “We would urge parliamentarians to steer clear of hostile and misleading rhetoric, which can have dangerous consequences for vulnerable people in the asylum system.”
Minister Robert Jenrick accused Labour of wanting to ‘wave in’ migrants
Labour’s shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock accused Mr Jenrick of having the “brass neck” to announce a planned reduction in the use of hotels when he had overseen the “Tory boats chaos”.
The Labour frontbencher pointed out that there will still be 350 asylum hotels in use at the end of the winter, despite promises last year they would end hotel use this year.
The Tory minister had told MPs the process of “exiting” asylum seekers from the first tranche of 50 hotels would begin in the coming days. He said it would be “complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly”.
But Mr Kinnock said the hotel announcement showed the “utter lack of ambition”, adding: “It beggars belief that the minister has the brass neck to come here today to announce not that the government has cut the number of hotels being used, but that it simply plans to – and by a paltry 12 per cent. Is that really it?”
Mr Jenrick responded by comparing his Labour counterpart with weatherman Michael Fish over the small boats crisis, saying: “He always gets the forecast wrong.”
Migrants are brought in to Dover, Kent, by a Border Force vessel
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said there was no reason to cram around 50,000 asylum seekers “into wholly unsuitable hotels” – blaming the “chaos” of an asylum backlog that has “spiralled out of control” under the current government.
But the campaigner also warned that forcing people too soon was damaging. “In closing hotels, we are now seeing a homelessness crisis developing with newly recognised refugees being given as little as seven days before they are evicted from accommodation.”
In March, the government introduced plans to house asylum seekers on disused military bases and barges in a bid to cut spending on hotels. That month, around 47,500 people were using hotel accommodation, according to the Commons Library.
Some migrants have been moved back on to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, after the discovery of Legionella bacteria in its water supply led to an evacuation in August.
Mr Jenrick said occupancy on the 500-person-capacity vessel had reached approximately 50 individuals by 23 October, as the government begins moving people onto the barge.
Another government plan announced in April 2022, under which some asylum seekers would be sent to Rwanda – currently held up in the courts – with a deportation flight yet to take off.
Mr Jenrick told the Commons that the government “remains confident of the legality of the Rwanda partnership … and we look forward to the judgement of the Supreme Court”.
