Suella Braverman is being urged to explain whether she refused to book hotel space for asylum seekers because “they were in Tory voting areas”.
The under-fire home secretary is facing a fresh allegation over the failure to prevent overcrowding of the Manston processing centre – leaving thousands of people in “wretched” conditions.
A government source told LBC Radio that Ms Braverman was given options of available hotels to ease the pressure, but wouldn’t approve those in Conservative constituencies.
It is claimed the home secretary did approve three hotels last week – after allegedly ignoring her officials’ calls to act at the start of October – but they are in Labour-held seats.
The Liberal Democrats suggested the allegation was “yet another example of the Conservatives putting their party’s interests ahead of the national interest and the rule of law”.
“Suella Braverman has yet more serious questions to answer about her conduct as home secretary,” said Christine Jardine, the party’s Cabinet Office spokesperson.
“Now more than ever there must be a Cabinet Office Inquiry, this is the final straw,” she added – a move rejected by Rishi Sunak.
Ms Braverman has also been accused of a “deliberate” decision to allow the desperate conditions at the Kent asylum seeker centre, to make the UK an unattractive destination for refugees.
The Conservative MP Roger Gale accused his own government of “dog whistle politics” – even before Ms Braverman’s incendiary claim that southern England faces an “invasion”.
On Sunday, around 4,000 asylum seekers were crammed into the site – which is designed for 1,600 people – triggering outbreaks of diseases including diphtheria, scabies and MSRA.
The former home secretary Priti Patel has effectively blamed her successor for the asylum centre crisis, making known she did book hotel rooms for asylum seekers while in charge.
But she is accused of adopting the same approach to asylum seekers when home secretary, despite being told “there is nowhere else for them to go”.
“She refused to sign off on them [hotels] and the reason is because they were in Tory voting areas,” the source told LBC.
In a Commons statement on Monday, Ms Braverman denied she “ignored” legal advice to find hotel space – while appearing to leave open that she decided not to follow it.
And she provoked further questions by admitting she “refused to prematurely release” asylum seekers who had somewhere else to stay.
Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, insisted allegations about his boss were false, saying: “Suella Braverman and her predecessor Priti Patel were procuring more hotels.”
Ms Braverman today told a meeting of cabinet that “large numbers” of people had been taken from Manston to other accommodation to “relieve pressure”. And she told ministers that the Western Jet Foil centre that was the target of a firebomb attack has now reopened.
The home secretary said that “unprecedented” numbers of crossings were taking place and that at “whole-government approach” would be needed to tackle the problem.
Mr Sunak told cabinet that the UK would “always be a compassionate, welcoming country”, but added that the country’s ability to offer a welcome to refugees from nations like Ukraine “depends on having control of our borders”.
He did not reprimand Ms Braverman in cabinet for her use of the word “invasion” to describe the arrival of asylum-seekers on the Kent coast, and his official spokesperson was unable to say whether the PM regards the term as “inappropriate”.
Asked if No 10 would describe the situation as an “invasion”, the PM’s spokesperson said: “The home secretary was seeking to express the sheer scale of the challenge that faces the country, with people - including a significant proportion of economic migrants - seeking to make this journey.”
