Western Jet Foil and Manston Asylum Processing Centres

Janet Daby Excerpts

Monday 31st October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Suella Braverman]

My hon. Friend is right: the average cost per person per night in a hotel is £150. By my standards, that is quite a nice hotel. Therefore, any complaints that the accommodation is not good enough are, frankly, absolutely indulgent and ungrateful.

[Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

Five separate sources told The Sunday Times that the Home Secretary was advised that “the legal breach” at Manston

“needed to be resolved urgently by rehousing the asylum seekers in alternative accommodation.”

Are all five lying?

[Suella Braverman]

As I said, I am very happy to confirm—by reference to the timeline, effectively—that I have been aware of this issue for several weeks. I would love to be able to magic up thousands of beds overnight. Unfortunately, it is not that easy. As a result of my concerns, which I identified several weeks ago, we have put in place a whole operational command to try to increase the capacity of accommodation and ease the pressure on Manston, but it takes time.