Labour has been accused of offering "another example of the Government putting illegal migrants before British people" after plans for a new landlord scheme were revealed.
The Home Office has launched a recruitment drive for landlords to house asylum seekers following a surge in Channel migrant crossings.
Serco, one of three private contractors working for the Home Office, is offering landlords five-year guaranteed full rent deals at the taxpayer's expense.
A website page with the heading "Calling all landlords" tells prospective clients: "We are confident that our lease provision offers an attractive and competitive proposition within the industry."
Henry Bolton hit out at Keir Starmer's latest 'erroneous' policy to tackle illegal migration
GB News / PA
Discussing the move on GB News, commentator Henry Bolton said the Labour Government are "digging a deeper hole" on tackling the migrant crisis with "erroneous" policies such as this.
Bolton fumed: "We've been talking about it and talking about it and talking about it and it seems to never change.
"And the Government seems to be digging itself into an ever deeper hole through increasingly standalone, erroneous policies such as this."
Offering a defence for Labour, Bolton admitted that the scheme does "remove migrants from hotels", which is what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has intended to do.
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This push comes after a new record for daily small boat arrivals was set earlier this monthPAHe explained: "To be fair to the Labour Government, they said they'd get them out of the hotels, and that's what they're doing. But as I've said numerous times, none of this is going to go away.
"None of these contentious policies are going to end until the problem of the boats ends. And what the Government is doing with this is not addressing the boats and going off to the criminal gangs - there are a whole range of other things that have to be done."
Despite the cost of housing asylum seekers in landlord-owned accommodation appearing "cheaper" than hotels, Bolton argued that the Government are simply "shifting the cost around".
Bolton told GB News: "It's worth saying that no matter what solution is applied, there's still going to be a cost implication. So we're shifting cost around. It's generally overall increasing, but we're shifting it.
Bolton told GB News that 'any solution will have a cost'
GB News
"Any solution is going to require funding, but the thing is I want to see solutions applied which are going to address the problem, so that at one point we can then stop having to fund it."
A Home Office spokesman said: "These arrangements with the private rented sector have been in place for years, including under the previous Government."
"We have a statutory duty to support destitute asylum seekers who will not be able to pay for fees such as utilities and council tax."
The spokesman added: "We are restoring order to the asylum system and cutting costs to taxpayers by reducing the number of people we are required to accommodate."
This is being achieved "through a rapid increase in asylum decision-making and the removal of more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK".
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