Talks to house migrants on two cruise ships are ongoing despite them being rejected by two ports, according to immigration minister Robert Jenrick.
He said discussions were progressing, despite local opposition to plans to moor the ships in Birkenhead in Merseyside and Leith in Scotland.
Asked about using cruise ships, Mr Jenrick told GB News: “The first barge will be operational within the coming days and that's an important step forward.
"I hope that will be seen as a successful way of housing people in decent accommodation.
Huge numbers of migrants are still coming to Britain via small boats PA“We’re in conversation with a number of other ports and hoping that we can secure those very soon.
“It's true that a couple of ports did back out, mostly because local Labour councils like in Birkenhead and in Leith in Edinburgh refused to support us, hypocritically actually if you look at the Leith example.
“That's a Labour council that housed Ukrainian refugees on the same barge, same boat, but refused to house asylum seekers, all the time saying that they are a city of sanctuary.”
In a discussion with Camilla Tominey, he claimed there was evidence that the Labour Party was colluding with lawyers to thwart the government’s plan.
He said: “Well, there is evidence that, yes.
"Just this week we've seen an allegation that a Labour councillor in Newcastle, who is also a legal representative, was on TikTok apparently soliciting illegal migrants to come to her and she would help them to stay in the UK.
“Now I think that would be news to her residents in Newcastle who probably want like I do, secure borders and control migration.
“But it is an example of what the Labour Party really thinks and as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing has been said or done with respect to that lady.”
Camilla Tominey (left) and Robert Jenrick (right)
GBN
On criticism from some Conservative MPs that migrants were being “dumped" in their constituencies, he said: “Well, the reason we're pursuing large sites and barges is so that we can exit the hotels, we don't want people staying in these hotels, they're very expensive and they're not appropriate.
“Of course we understand that in the small number of places where these larger sites and barges are going to be located that will pose problems…and we're working very closely with councils and community groups in each of those places to try to mitigate that, providing extra money for the police and the health service, for example.
Tominey was also joined by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, Labour MP Stephen Timms, economist Roger Bootle and Tory MP Sir John Redwood.
The Camilla Tominey Show airs every Sunday at 9.30am.