Labour scraps plan to hold asylum seekers on RAF site

Labour has scrapped plans to house asylum seekers at RAF Scampton, weeks after it dumped the Conservative government’s Rwanda deportation scheme.

- KATE DEVLIN

The Home Office said the much-criticised plan for the site did not represent value for money for the taxpayer.

Campaigners welcomed the move, saying former military sites were never suitable places to house those coming to the UK seeking safety.

The former airbase in Lincolnshire was at the centre of the previous Tory government’s plan to accommodate migrants who arrived across the Channel in small boats.

Opening the site from the autumn as planned would have cost a further £122m by the end of its use in 2027, meaning the site no longer represents value for money, the government said. Home Office minister Dame Angela Eagle revealed that £60m has already been spent on work at the base.