Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has declined to rule out using Treasury reserves to pay for emergency asylum accommodation, as she vowed to “end the use of hotels”.
Her shadow James Cleverly rejected allegations that the previous government left accommodation costs undisclosed, as he called on Ms Cooper to commit they would be paid for from the Home Office budget.
On her appointment as Chancellor Rachel Reeves accused the previous government of leaving a £22 billion black hole of unfunded commitments that it had “covered up from the country”, including £6.4 billion on hotel accommodation for asylum seekers.
Ms Reeves said the forecast for the number of asylum seekers had risen “dramatically” while the cost of asylum support had risen sevenfold.
During Home Office Questions in the Commons on Monday, Mr Cleverly denied this was the case, but asked if Ms Cooper would be funding emergency asylum accommodation “in the same way” he did.
The former home secretary said: “In her statement to the House on July 29 this year, the Chancellor said that asylum accommodation costs being drawn down from Treasury reserves were, and I quote, ‘unfunded and undisclosed’ – a description that I reject.
“So can the Home Secretary now confirm to the House that asylum accommodation costs will be disclosed, but more importantly, funded from her departmental budget, and that she will not be drawing down from Treasury reserves to pay for the asylum accommodation costs?
“Or does she reject the Chancellor’s description, and will she fund these costs in the same way that I did?”
Ms Cooper said Mr Cleverly “does now seem to be admitting the totally chaotic state of asylum accommodation finances”.
“Where he had to continually seek last-minute reserve claims because they had underfunded the asylum accommodation problems that they had caused, by letting the asylum backlog soar, and as a result, the taxpayer ended up footing the bill,” she said.
“This Government will be making savings from asylum accommodation by getting the system back in order.”
Mr Cleverly again questioned: “Will she be drawing down from Treasury reserves – yes or no?”
Ms Cooper replied: “This Government has already been putting in place the funding to try and make good the total chaos that his government left us with, £700 million pounds to send four volunteers to Rwanda, and how much did he spend on a flight?”
The Home Secretary also referred to rumours of vote-lending in the Tory leadership contest, where Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are now the final two contenders, stating Mr Cleverly he been “kicked out” of the race “because he can’t count”.
Earlier in the session, Ms Cooper vowed to “end hotel use” by clearing the backlog of Home Office decisions over asylum claims.
Asked by Conservative MP Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) about asylum hotel use, Ms Cooper told the Commons: “The overall situation that we have inherited included a backlog that was increasing, an asylum backlog that was increasing, because asylum decision-making had totally collapsed.
“We have now increased that asylum decision-making so that we can clear the backlog and so that we can end hotel use.
“We know that sadly that will take time as a result of what we have inherited, with the soaring backlog as a result of the collapse in decision-making but we are determined to make sure that we can clear the backlog and save the taxpayer hundreds of millions, if not billions of pounds.”
In response to a claim from Rupert Lowe, Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth, that “dangerous foreign criminals have been using the ECHR as a loophole to remain in the UK”, Ms Cooper said agreements to stop small boats reaching the English Channel “would not be possible” without international law.
She told the Commons: “It is crucial that we work with other countries to tackle the gangs and the boats before they reach the French coast in the first place.
“We have increased our co-operation with new agreements in place with the G7, with Europol, with Italy, working on new agreements with France, Germany and Belgium.
“Those agreements would not be possible if we are somehow abandoning international law.”
Last Friday more than 600 people crossed the Channel in small boats, just a day after a baby died on the journey, an incident Ms Cooper described as “truly tragic”.
