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Four more years of migrant hotels, Home Office admits
The Independent
|February 19, 2025
Hotels will continue to be used to house asylum seekers for the remainder of Labour's time in government, the Home Office's top civil servant has estimated.
Sir Matthew Rycroft, the Home Office’s permanent secretary, told MPs that the department’s aim was to “get to zero” asylum hotels being used by the end of this parliament, but that “ups and downs” might affect that promise.
Labour had pledged in their manifesto to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”, but they have opened several new hotels since taking office. Dame Angela Eagle, a Home Office minister, blamed the “unholy mess” of an asylum claims backlog left by the Conservatives for the new hotels opening.
The number of hotels reached a peak of around 400 under the Tory government in August 2023 and had fallen to 213 by the time of the election last July. This had risen slightly to 220 by last October.
This story is from the February 19, 2025 edition of The Independent.
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