Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Hoare Excerpts

Monday 24th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

12. What steps she is taking to reduce the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

14. What steps she is taking to reduce the number of people living in asylum hotels.

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Dame Angela Eagle)]

We are continuing to reduce the use of asylum hotels from the peak, which was reached under the previous Government, when more than 400 hotels were in use across the country at a cost of £9 million every day. We are determined to end the use of hotels over time as part of our wider objective to cut the costs of asylum accommodation and restore order to our immigration system.

[Dame Angela Eagle]

We are determined to end hotel usage as part of our objective to cut the costs of asylum accommodation. A key element of that is clearing the asylum backlog and increasing returns, so that the system operates swiftly, firmly and fairly.

[Simon Hoare]

I am afraid that determination will not quite cut it, will it? Pensioners in North Dorset who have been deprived of their winter fuel allowance and farmers who have been hit by and are now facing a massive tax burden will want to know how the Minister will reduce the cost of asylum hotels, which is, as she says, eye-wateringly high. The action and her words are not apparently matching.