Labour attacks government plan to house migrants in tents

Plans to house some migrants in tents show the government is "flailing around" in its efforts to curb small boat crossings, Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said.

The Times first reported that the Home Office had bought tents to house up to 2,000 people on disused military sites.

A government source confirmed tents would be used as a contingency.

Ms Cooper said this was an "admission" ministers were not expecting their approach to work.

Nearly 15,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel in boats this year.

Rishi Sunak has made stopping small boats arriving in the UK one of his government's main priorities since becoming prime minister last October.

But continued crossings, a large backlog of asylum claims and legal challenges to the government's policies have hampered their efforts.

The Times said Home Secretary Suella Braverman was working on contingency plans to erect the tents in the coming weeks, with a surge of boats expected.

It cited government sources saying a similar proposal was rejected last year because of warnings it would trigger legal challenges based on inhumane treatment of asylum seekers.

A Home Office spokesperson would not comment on individual sites or proposals for asylum accommodation.

However, a government source told the BBC tents would be used to avoid the situation faced last year when the Home Office ran out of hotels booked longer term to accommodate migrants.

The source would not discuss details of where the tents would be used, but said it would help avoid the "spot booking" of hotels paid for on a nightly basis.

Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the government had promised the Illegal Migration Act - a law central to Mr Sunak's pledge to stop the small boats - "would end all of the chaos".

Under the controversial legislation, which became law earlier this month, the home secretary has a legal duty to detain and remove anyone entering the UK illegally.

But Ms Cooper said the government should be focusing on going after "criminal gangs that are driving and organising crossings".

The shadow home secretary said Labour was "really concerned that at the heart of this, you've got gangs who are undermining border security and putting lives at risk".

The Refugee Action group described the plans to house migrants in tents as "staggering".

"This is yet another way the government has developed to demonise people seeking asylum," Tim Naor Hilton, the group's chief executive said.

An uptick in migrant crossings is expected in August. The same month last year saw 8,631 arrivals in small boats, the highest number since records began.

Of the 45,755 people detected arriving by small boats in 2022, 51% of these people arrived between August and October.

The government says it wants to reduce the cost of housing asylum seekers as there are currently about 51,000 in hotels across the UK, costing the taxpayer about £6m a day.

"We continue to work across government and with local authorities to look at a range of accommodation options," a Home Office spokesperson said.

"Accommodation offered to asylum seekers, on a no choice basis, meets our legal and contractual requirements."

Meanwhile, the Home Office expects to send an initial 50 people to the UK's first floating barge for asylum seekers in the coming days.

A government source confirmed the Home Office intended to send the group to board the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, on Tuesday.

The move is going ahead despite protests about the barge, which is designed to reduce the use of hotels for people waiting on asylum claims.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The Bibby Stockholm has completed a statutory inspection and refurbishment and is now berthing in Portland.

"The welfare of those in our care is of the utmost priority and the barge is now undergoing final preparations to ensure it complies with all appropriate regulations before the arrival of the first asylum seekers in the coming weeks."

But plans to move 2,000 migrants to a former RAF base in Scampton, Lincolnshire, from August, have been delayed until October at the earliest, according to Scampton Parish Council.

It said the Home Office had told the council work had still to be completed on the buildings that would house the migrants.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.