A minister has suggested that Labour has one year to shut hotels for asylum seekers before Reform clobbers them.
Reform UK could ‘clobber’ the Labour Party if immigration is not addressed (Image: Getty)
One minister, whose seat Nigel Farage’s party come in second place in at the election, said Labour was not yet getting the “blame” for the small boats crisis but warned “it’s still a big issue”.
The minister said the key for the Government would be clearing the asylum backlog, which would allow an end to the practice of using hotels to house asylum seekers.
The minister said: “We need to close asylum hotels. People here are still very much blaming the Tories but I think we need to close the hotels as soon as possible because it’s such an easy target for the far right,” the minister said.
“I think we have a year. If we don’t then it will help Reform, no doubt.”
Yvette Cooper ‘must close asylum hotels’ (Image: Getty)
But reports last week suggested that Home Office officials’ assumption that it could stop using hotels within a year was over optimistic and that it could take three times longer to empty hotels of asylum seekers because the backlog was taking significantly longer to clear than Labour expected.
Speaking to the i newspaper, the minister said that if it was going to take longer the Government should focus on the “most visible hotels”, while also demonstrating fairness in the system, for example by following through on promises that more failed asylum seekers would be returned to their home countries, while delivering on the economy.
They said: “Labour voters want fairness.”
“Many felt it was unfair that they were struggling while asylum seekers had an ‘easy life’ in hotels with ‘all bills paid’.
“If we deliver on improving things for them it wouldn’t be as much of an issue.
“People don’t want to smash the system with full bellies and warm houses and a holiday booked to Spain.”
A Home Office source said it did not “recognise” the three-year timescale for clearing the asylum backlog and stressed that asylum decision-making has picked up following a pre-election slump.
SEE MORE :
Keir Starmer has a secret plan – and it explains why everything has gone wrong for Labour
At first, it seemed obvious. Starmer was playing exactly the same role that Tony Blair did in the 1990s. His job was to crush the Corbynite left and convince voters it was safe to elect a Labour government again.
And that’s what he did, with impressive ruthlessness. Exactly as Blair had done before him. His reward was sweeping to power in July.
Which is when it all went wrong.
Having made Labour electable again – albeit with fewer votes than former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn mustered in 2017 – Starmer has worked flat out to ensure Labour won’t win power for a generation.
In a matter of weeks, Starmer has managed to annoy every single type of voter, whether left, right or somewhere in between.
Labour is now just 1% ahead of the Conservative Party is in the polls, and we know how much the country hates the Tories.
It’s a stunning achievement. He can’t have done this by accident. It must be by design.
Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have enraged pensioners by snatching their Winter Fuel Payment and threatening them with every type of tax.
They’ve frightened the life out of business, stalling the economy in the process.
And they’ve infuriated trade unionists and the Corbynite left, by refusing to axe the two-child benefit cap.
Just to make sure, they’ve besmirched the Labour brand by grabbing every freebie they can.
It’s a chaotic start but I’m beginning to think it’s all part of a brilliantly cunning plan. To discredit the Labour Party and make voters long for the Tories again.
Think about it.
Starmer and Reeves’ serial ineptitude is making former PM Rishi Sunak and chancellor Jeremy Hunt look statesmanlike by comparison.
It feels like Keir Starmer has been planted in the Labour Party to destroy it (Image: Getty)
Labour’s woes are distracting the country from the Conservative Party’s leadership campaign. Given the low quality of the candidates, that can only be good for the Tories.
Also, Starmer is clearly a clever man. He’s had a brilliant career. He can’t really be this useless, can he? Of course not.
My theory is that he’s a Tory sleeper agent, planted in Labour to create maximum havoc.
If I’m right, he’s done a stunning job. A few more weeks of this, and Labour will be trailing the Tory party in the polls.
After five years, the country will be gagging to vote for whoever the Tories install as leader.
And they won’t touch Labour for a generation.
Planting Starmer in the Labour Party was a brilliant move. It’s paying off in spades.
I’m just doubtful about one thing. I can’t quite believe the Tories are competent enough to have come up with such a brilliant masterplan.
But how else can we explain Starmer? His secret mission is to destroy Labour and he’s done it in record time.
