Seven asylum hotels to close in the new year

Seven asylum hotels will close in the new year, the home secretary has said.

Yvette Cooper told the Home Affairs Select Committee she had been able to order the closures because the government had brought the asylum backlog down.

She said that was work “we are determined to keep making progress on”.

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During the election Labour promised to end the use of asylum hotels, where asylum seekers are housed while their claims are processed.

But last month Dame Angela Eagle, the border security minister, said more hotels for asylum seekers had opened since Labour came into government.

Dame Angela said there were 220 hotels used for asylum seekers, with seven having shut since July – but 14 more had opened.

According to Dame Angela, there are currently around 116,000 asylum seekers “stuck in a backlog” of more than two years.

The minister blamed the situation on the policies of the previous government, arguing that the system “ground to a standstill” because the Tories were busy pursuing the Rwanda policy “which was doomed to failure”.

The Labour Party immediately scrapped the policy – which would have sent those entering the UK illegally to settle in Rwanda – on entering into government, branding it a “gimmick” and a waste of money.

However, the Conservatives have argued that in scrapping the Rwanda scheme, the government has removed a key deterrent for those looking to enter the UK illegally.

The most recent statistics show more than 35,000 migrants have arrived in the UK so far this year after crossing the Channel, including some 21,306 people who have arrived by small boat since 5 July – the day after Labour was voted in.

Meanwhile, the cost of the UK asylum system has risen to £5bn, the highest level of Home Office spending on record and up by more than a third in a year.

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Keir Starmer blames Tories for UK’s ‘open borders’

Last month Sir Keir Starmer was criticised for not including reducing immigration in his government’s milestones.

However, the prime minister said migration needs to come down.

“It is our duty to do it [bring migration down]. And we will do it,” he said.

The government has claimed that more migrants have been removed from the UK since Labour was elected than in any other six-month period over the past five years.

The Home Office announced at the weekend that almost 13,460 people had been removed since Labour’s landslide victory.