Closing Migrant Hotels, opening military bases?

It *sounds* like something we want but it’s really all just spin! I’m talking about the news that UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is expected to unveil plans to move asylum seekers from hotels into military barracks. Labour now seeks to convey the impression that it is hardening its immigration policy amid rising numbers of crossings in the channel.

The new home secretary is reportedly set to announce the use of Ministry of Defence sites to house people after a wave of protests outside migrant accommodation over the summer. The scale of the challenge facing the former justice secretary was illustrated on Saturday when an estimated 1,000 people arrived in the UK by small boats. Dozens of asylum hotels are expected to close after they became the focal point of several demonstrations in recent months.

Ministers are also close to agreeing a returns deal with Germany, having already secured one with France. The deal with France has thus far resulted in zero migrant removals so we can expect similar results with Germany! More spin.

On the hard facts of the matter, there are at least 32,000 illegal migrants here in hotels. The combined operational capacity of known military barrack sites is around 1,100-2,000 at most. Other proposed sites like RAF Scampton (Lincolnshire, planned for up to 2,000) were scrapped in September 2024 due to cost and value-for-money issues. Do the maths, it just doesn’t work.

The Starmer regime know that public anger at Migrant Hotels is destroying it’s credibility and enhancing that of Reform so there has to be a switch. I’ve written previously about “Operation Scatter” - the plan to move thousands of these migrants from hotels into houses of multiple occupancy. This simply increases the risk to the public but it changes the optics and the media will cheer along with it.

However just think for one moment of these large numbers of of young men of military age being moved into military accommodation. Is this something that reassures you because it alarms me! It almost like an invading army is being all set up to do …something.

At every stage the Government will seek to avoid doing the only thing that matters - deporting the lot of them back to where the came from - France!

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