Use of hotels to house asylum applicants 

I know there have been tensions in various parts of the UK with regard to the use of hotels for placing migrants awaiting asylum decisions. Residents are right to raise concerns if they have them and I remain wholly unconvinced that this is the most appropriate solution. 

I have raised major concerns about the management of these hotels by various private companies - you can see my comments at the Home Affairs Select Committee here, and my appearance on BBC News at 6 here. We must expose the scandal of asylum contracts, written under the Tories, which enabled private providers to make eight times more profit by keeping asylum applicants in hotels. This is a shocking waste of taxpayer money.

Unfortunately, legitimate concerns about various issues facing the public have continually been appropriated by the far-right to spread hate & misinformation. We must have an effective immigration policy that works for our country & economy, while fixing public trust in the process. My party advocates using the Civil Contingencies Act to set up temporary "Nightingale processing centres" to speed up the process of dealing with asylum claims, clear the backlog within 6 months, stop the use of hotels and end the ban on asylum seekers working if they have waited too long awaiting a decision.

The Tories deliberate policy to create a backlog and Labour’s failure to properly address it only push those with reasonable concerns about the challenges of  immigration further into the arms of Nigel Farage & the far-right. The Government must get a grip of the situation whilst also meeting our international requirements on human rights, asylum & refugees.