Large military sites will no longer be used to house asylum seekers in Britain under the new Labour government, which will instead scatter groups of these individuals around the country.
The Times, which was first to report the story, said the move was designed to “cut pressure on local services,” although it appears that these pressures will instead be spread across even more localities.
Richard Tice, deputy leader of Reform UK, said that Sir Keir Starmer’s administration was “putting illegal migrants ahead of British citizens in [the] housing queue under Operation Scatter,” adding, “Labour [officials] don’t care about [the] British working class.”
News of the dispersal comes at a particularly bad time, with protesters across the country insisting that when it comes to illegal migration—and more—“enough is enough.”
Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already announced she is scrapping the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge as migrant accommodation. It is understood that the use of other sites, such as the former air force bases RAF Wethersfield and RAF Scampton, will also come to an end.
One government source told The Times:
It’s all about having a more equitable dispersal of asylum seekers. Otherwise you have these areas that have concentrated numbers and that is what we got in areas with hotels and large sites. That creates a whole host of challenges, meaning services in those areas are then stretched and those asylum seekers can’t get the basic or crucial support they need.
The paper also reported that ministers are looking to “massively increase” the procurement of “dispersed accommodation,” such as empty homes or former student blocks.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Starmer has already indicated that Labour will allow more than 100,000 migrants to apply for asylum in the UK. And new Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said ahead of the July 4th general election that under her command, every borough in the country would be required to take its “fair share” of asylum seekers.
The Times’ source admitted that there were “limitations” when it comes to available accommodation, meaning hotels are still likely to be used to house migrants in some areas.
