Sir Keir Starmer is being torn apart after it emerged he is set to break yet another manifesto pledge, this time on housing migrants in hotels.
Labour’s manifesto pledged to “end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds”.
While they did not set a timeframe, Home Office officials were expecting all hotel use for migrants applying for asylum to end within a year of Sir Keir coming to power.
However, this morning it emerged that applicants will now continue to be housed in hotels for up to three years due to the size of the backlog and swathes of migrants continuing to float over the Channel.
The overall backlog stands at about 225,000, an increase of 11,000 since Labour came to power.
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Sir Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper promised to end the use of migrant hotels (Image: Getty)
Robert Jenrick tore into Labour’s latest broken promise (Image: Getty)
The news that hotels will now continue to be used provoked fury from opposition politicians.
Tory leadership frontrunner Robert Jenrick said: “Starmer pledged to ‘end asylum hotels’.
“But he scrapped rather than strengthened the Rwanda plan. And in the 88 days he’s been PM, 11,000 illegal migrants have come.
“It’s no surprise then that, under Starmer, we’ll be spending billions on these hotels for years to come.”
Rival James Cleverly, former home secretary, warned that Labour is planning to re-open asylum hotels “because they scrapped Rwanda, have no plan, and over 11,000 illegal migrants have crossed the channel since Labour took office”.
Meanwhile, Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice shared a graphic comparing Sir Keir’s £1.4billion in cuts to winter fuel payments while spending £8.5billion on unemployed immigrants.
He added: “Only Reform UK is on the side of pensioners and the lowest paid.”
Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty fumed that Labour was “not smashing the gangs”, adding: “They’re barely clearing the backlog.
“Over 10,000 more people have arrived in the last three months.”
During the election campaign, the Prime Minister said: “If we were to carry on with this government, we would have the best part of 100,000 asylum seekers in this country, none of whom are being processed.
“That means none of them can be returned, because until you’re processed, you can’t be returned, even if you’ve got no right to be here, being housed in hotels at the taxpayer’s expense.
“I don’t think that’s right and yes we want to turn that around.”
Labour is now trying to pass the buck onto the Conservatives, claiming things are worse first believed before entering Government.
A Labour source told The Times: “We have inherited a completely failed immigration system from the Tories. Including them spending over £700million on Rwanda, and gimmicks that didn’t work.”
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Migrants could be in hotels for three more years due to backlog in huge blow for Starmer
Migrants could be housed in hotels for up to three more years due to the asylum backlog, an insider has claimed, dealing a massive blow to Sir Keir Starmer’s fledgling Government.
Yvette Cooper and PM Sir Keir Starmer (Image: GETTY)
Since coming into office, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and other ministers have come to realise that clearing the backlog will take longer than initially hoped, the Times reported – with the number of people waiting for an initial decision actually increasing slightly in the three months since the election.
The party had promised to resolve the issue and “end asylum hotels,” but a Whitehall source described the situation as “much worse than we thought.”
They added: “It’s going to take much longer to clear than we anticipated. It certainly won’t be cleared within a year.”
A Labour source once again sought to blame the previous Government, insisting: “We’ve inherited a completely failed immigration system from the Tories, including them spending over £700 million on Rwanda and other gimmicks that didn’t work.
More migrants arrive in Kent after being rescued in the Channel (Image: Getty)
“We are working on clearing the backlog they left behind – they clearly did nothing in the months leading up to the election.
“The numbers speak for themselves.”
Home Office figures released in August showed that 118,882 people were waiting for an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June 2024.
The figure marks a 32 percent decrease from 175,457 at the end of June 2023, which was the highest figure since current records began in 2010.
However, the latest total was slightly up from 118,329 at the end of March, indicating a rise in the last three months of the 12-month period.
Earlier this month, Ms Cooper told broadcasters that the Government was making progress on reducing the asylum backlog and deporting those with no right to remain in the UK, “so that we can end these very costly asylum hotels.”
The Labour manifesto, released ahead of the general election, pledged to “restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly, and fairly.”
It stated: “We will hire additional caseworkers to clear the Conservatives’ backlog and end asylum hotels, saving the taxpayer billions of pounds.”
