Kettering MP suggests immigration minister should resign after Royal Hotel asylum seeker move

Philip Hollobone has suggested that the UK’s immigration minister should resign after asylum seekers were moved into Kettering’s Royal Hotel – two days after the Home Office agreed that they wouldn’t be yet.

The Conservative MP told Robert Jenrick the decision was ‘100 per cent unacceptable’ and said he had no confidence that the minister had the ‘first clue of what he was doing’.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon (November 23) he said that serious environmental concerns, including mould, had been raised with the Home Office and contractors SERCO last Friday and that they had agreed that the hotel would not be used until the issues were addressed.

But yesterday (Tuesday) North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) was told that 41 asylum seekers had moved into the 51-bed hotel on Sunday – and that the number could rise to 80.

Mr Hollobone said: “The situation is now so bad and chaotic that the minister should consider his position.

"On Friday North Northamptonshire Council, Northants Police and other local agencies had an online meeting with the Home Office and SERCO regarding the potential use of the 51-bed Royal Hotel in Kettering, slap bang in the middle of the town centre.

"Serious environmental health issues including mould and no kitchen facilities were raised. Northants Police raised serious concerns about community safety and vulnerability of the asylum seekers themselves.

"The Home Office and SERCO officials agreed that the hotel would not be used until these issues were properly addressed. Yesterday, Tuesday, the council was advised that 41 asylum seekers had been moved into the hotel on Sunday afternoon, without any notification at all, and this could potentially rise to 80.

"No biometric or previous offending history data has been shared with the local police.

"It is totally, 100 per cent, unacceptable. I asked the minister face-to-face on October 27 for a meeting. I asked him again on the floor of the House last Wednesday. No such meeting has been forthcoming.

"This is a wrong-headed decision. The local police, the local council and I have been misled and I have no confidence at all that the Home Office, SERCO or the minister himself have the first clue of what they are doing in relation to this asylum seeker relocation.”

In reply Mr Jenrick said: “Well I’d be happy to make some enquiries and come back to the gentleman.”

NNC had taken legal action to prevent the Market Place hotel – which once welcomed Queen Victoria – from being used. Their interim injunction bid was dismissed at the High Court. The authority then put a temporary stop notice on the site, but the notice is no longer in the hotel’s windows.

The council said it has decided not to pursue further legal action at this time.

Cllr Jason Smithers, leader of NNC, said: “We take the welfare and safety of everyone very seriously. We have an obligation to flag our concerns when we have information to suggest that something is not right.

"That is what I have done and at the highest level, in writing to the Government. At the end of the day, the decision to house asylum seekers at a particular location is out of the control of local councils.”