Dominic Raab has said “nothing is off the table” when it comes to reducing the use of hotels to house asylum seekers, which reportedly costs more than £6m a day.
The UK deputy prime minister said “plush” hotel accommodation served as an “incentive” for small boats crossings, adding many asylum seekers were “effectively abusing the system”.
“The idea that you can get on an illegal boat run by some gangster to get into this country and be housed in a hotel, that’s going to end,” Raab told Sky News as the government prepared to announce plans to house asylum seekers in barges, vessels and military bases.
Possible vessels include a former cruise ship from Indonesia, which would be moored in south-west England, the Guardian understands. However, a government source said “nothing has been bought”.
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, dismissed the plans as “government spin”, as ministers have not said they would use barges instead of hotels. In time, there could be “hotels overflowing with people and barges overflowing with people until the government speeds up processing claims”, he said.
The immigration minister, Robert Jenrick, is due to make an announcement on Wednesday about asylum accommodation amid speculation that it could include the use of boats and military barracks. The government could also disclose plans to use a clause in the levelling up bill to force councils to accept large-scale accommodation for those seeking asylum.
Reports on Tuesday night suggested a plan to house asylum seekers on large barges used normally for offshore construction projects could be announced. The barges are built to accommodate hundreds of people, although a government source told the Times that plans were at an “early stage” and significant practical issues had to be addressed.
“Nothing’s off the table”, Raab told Sky News. “We must end this perverse incentive through the hotels and more generally with the hospitality that in a broader sense this country gives, encouraging the wrong people, which is the criminal gangs and illegal migrants, to make these very dangerous journeys.
“Barges would be one possible option.”
The disclosure came as the Home Office confirmed nearly 400 hotels across the UK were being used to accommodate more than 51,000 people. The cost is reported to be more than £6m a day.
Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, is under pressure to come up with alternatives as Conservative MPs, including members of his own cabinet, such as James Cleverly, object to plans to move some people from hotels into former military bases.
Raab has said Cleverly “fully supports” the plans to house asylum seekers in disused RAF bases.
Ministers have drawn up plans to use RAF Scampton, the “Dambusters”’ base in Lincolnshire, and MDP Wethersfield, in Braintree, Essex, to house asylum seekers. But local Conservative politicians have opposed the proposals.
Cleverly, the foreign secretary, who is the MP for Braintree, wrote on his Facebook page that Wethersfield was inappropriate as an asylum camp because of “the remote nature of the site, limited transport infrastructure and narrow road network”.
Whitehall sources confirmed that the government had “in recent months” examined plans including using cruise ships from across the world, which could be brought to the UK to house asylum seekers.
Labour’s Wes Streeting said: “The government would rather give the appearance about doing something than stopping small boats. Speeding up claims, deporting people when their claims are unsuccessful, that’s the way to tackle the problem with the immigration system instead of spending millions housing people in hotels.”
