‘I rejected £3m hotel contract for migrants’

A BOUTIQUE hotel owner has rejected a £3million contract to house migrants for seven years, claiming it would “harm the village”.

- By Lotti O'Brien

Samuel Leeds was offered what he called an “attractive” deal for Willingham House in Willingham, Cambridgeshire, but refused to be part of the “arrogant” Government’s asylum system.

He bought the hotel in 2023 and began renovations.

As work neared completion, he was approached in June this year by a company he had worked with previously.

Mr Leeds, 34, told the Daily Express: “He wanted to make me an offer to rent the whole building.”

He said the company owner told him: “The council is going to pay me and then I can pay you, but Pll pay you guaranteed rent.”

After a verbal agreement, the firm sent over a pre-lease agreement offering £35,000 a month (£420,000 a year) for six years and 11 months — despite the Government’s pledge to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029.

Arrogant