Luxury migrant hotels to be SCRAPPED: At least 50 hotels to go as Tories vow ENOUGH

Between April 2022 and March 2023, the Government spent about £2.3billion on hotel accommodation.

Speaking in the Commons, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said some hotel use would end immediately.

WATCH NOW: Europe to save the migrant crisis Ann Widdecombe

“The first 50 of these exits will begin in the coming days and will be complete by the end of January with more tranches to follow shortly but we will not stop there,” Jenrick said.

He told MPs: “We will continue to deliver on our strategy to stop the boats and we will be able to exit more hotels.

“And as we exit these hotels, we are putting in place dedicated resources to facilitate the orderly and effective management of this process and limit the impact on local communities.”

The Government has pledged to house asylum seekers in cheaper accommodation, including RAF bases at Wethersfield in Essex and Scampton in Lincolnshire.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:

• ‘They should fly a deluded flag!’ Fiery debate erupts after Pride flag torn down at pro-Palestine protest
• Macron in major ECHR pushback as France gears up to break rules to expel 'dangerous' foreigners
• Tesco makes major food changes in 170 stores across the UK

Migrants have also returned to the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland Harbour in Dorset after having been evacuated due to an outbreak of Legionella on board.

Jenrick said that around 50 people were now living on the barge and that more would arrive in the coming weeks.

He also addressed the small boats crisis directly.

Official figures show that yesterday nearly 400 migrants arrived in Dover after crossing the English Channel taking this year's total to over 26,500.

“Our concerted efforts at home and abroad are making progress. For the first time since the phenomenon of small boats arrivals began four years ago, arrivals are down by over a fifth compared to the equivalent period in 2022,” Jenrick said.

“In recent months, we’ve seen even further falls.

“And let me dispel the myth peddled by some of our increasingly desperate opponents that this is because of the weather.

“The weather conditions this year were more favourable to small boat crossings than 2022 and yet we have seen a marked decrease.

“By contrast, in the year to June 2023, detections of irregular border crossings at the external borders of Europe increased by a third and irregular arrivals to Italy across the Mediterranean have almost doubled.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made “stopping the boats” one of his five key pledges after 45,755 migrants crossed the Channel illegally in 2022.

The Government passed the Illegal Migration Bill in July, giving the Home Secretary a legal duty to detain and remove anyone entering the UK illegally.