In the last twenty-four hours, I have been contacted by a number of local people in respect of the Best Western Rockingham Forest Hotel in Corby, with specific reference to reports of it being used for temporary asylum accommodation, going forward. I am very grateful to all those who have written sharing their concerns and posing various questions. The situation is quite clearly highly undesirable.
I will come on to the detail of the substantive matter shortly, but before doing so, I just wanted to set the record straight about some misinformation that appears to be being peddled by some - presumably for party political reasons locally. Let me be clear: in my former ministerial role, which I held until the start of July, I was not responsible for asylum-related accommodation, such as this - that is just a basic matter of fact. Nor would I have been able to take decisions relating to a site within my own constituency, as a basic matter of probity, in any event.
Those directly claiming this, or insinuating such, should stop - as it is both unhelpful and demonstrably wrong.
I have, however, shared a copy of all the correspondence I have received from residents who have written to me with concerns, with the Minister for Safe & Legal Migration, Kevin Foster MP, for official consideration and response, and to ensure that he is fully aware of local feelings on the matter. This also allows the various legitimate questions that have been raised relating to timescales, numbers, consultation, logistics, safeguarding, the nature of the provider and the impact on staff at the hotel and prior bookings, to be answered officially and to set out the facts. I will of course share that response once I have it.
By way of information, I have also sought an urgent meeting with the Minister about this and I will continue to actively raise the legitimate points being put to me by concerned residents. I have mentioned local concerns to the Home Secretary too. I am also in communication with North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) about this.
I want to say something about this issue more generally, however, given the nature of the debate we are seeing and to further debunk some of the myths.
First, it is wrong to refer to such temporary hotel accommodation as being a 'detention centre' - there are strict rules governing detention and a hotel site would not qualify as such.
I have to say it is also rather staggering to see the breath-taking contradiction between what local Labour politicians locally are saying on this now, relative to that which they wrote in an official letter to me in April of this year. Indeed, in that letter, they strongly opposed the Government's efforts to tackle illegal migration into our country - and the only alternative solution they could muster as a Corby & East Northamptonshire Constituency Labour Party to address the issue of small boat crossings of the Channel and people arriving illegally at that time, was to "properly fund and staff immigration centres in this country." I told them in response that simply wasn't a sustainable solution, yet several months on, we still hear no credible alternative Labour Party plan to address illegal migration flows, despite their protestations about this particular proposal locally. So in that sense, their words ring rather hollow - we are hearing lots of criticism of this touted temporary location from them, at the same time as they seemingly want to expand the use of such centres. You can't have it both ways.
In fact, the key difference is this. I want to tackle the wider issue and restrict the flow of people coming here illegally, which would render the use of such temporary accommodation sites obsolete and allow them to be closed - while they have no credible plan to achieve this, nor the desire politically, to do so. In fact, their cynical shouting from the side-lines, yet do nothing stance nationally, would only see more and more such sites being required, nationwide, in the years to come. They should be honest about what their stance means in reality for communities such as ours in the context of this debate.
In contrast, this Government has a credible plan to tackle illegal immigration - notably the 'New Plan for Immigration' and delivery of several key aspects of it has now begun, with the first tranche of Nationality and Borders Act 2022 measures having come into force at the end of June - which opposition MPs consistently voted against. None of this work is easy, and it will take time to deliver in full, but I am proud of the work I did in Government for nine months to shift the dial and begin to turn this situation around, by putting in place the tools required to remove more easily those with no right to be in our country, and to break the smuggling gangs responsible for dangerously transporting people here. Inaction is not an option - a view I know the vast majority of people in Corby and East Northamptonshire share with me on this issue.
I'm afraid the stark reality is that some politicians cynically want it both ways - to complain about emergency accommodation responses to the unacceptable volume of people making these criminally facilitated dangerous journeys to our country, yet want to do absolutely nothing to address the fundamental issue at hand, which is the root cause of the problem driving the demand for such accommodation in the first place. In contrast, I, like local people, do not wish to see emergency asylum hotel accommodation being stood-up in communities such as ours and I will continue to support a Government that is putting into action a credible plan to stop it being necessary and to close the hotels.