Minister defends plan to house asylum seekers in military sites even if it costs more – UK politics live

Luke Pollard suggested using barracks would be worth it given public opposition to housing asylum seekers in hotels Good morning. The Home Office confirmed last night that it wants to use two barracks, in Scotland and southern England, to house around 900 male asylum seekers. The two sites are Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough Training Camp in East Sussex and ministers want the men to start moving in from the end of next month. Kevin Rawlinson has more details here.In some respects, this announcement can be added to the list of government U-turns; only last summer the government was saying it wanted to end the use of military sites for asylum seekers.Some bases are small, some bases are larger in terms of numbers, but I think the conversation around the bases that are in the news today is about proving this concept, is about seeing whether this works. We believe that these bases can provide adequate accommodation for asylum seekers.We’re looking at what’s possible and, in some cases, those bases may be a different cost to hotels, but I think we need to reflect the public mood on this asylum hotels need to close. Continue reading...