Euan Stainbank MP: The numbers show Labour is restoring control to the asylum system
The Cladhan Hotel should never have been used as asylum accommodation. I know that this view is shared by the quiet majority of people in Falkirk.
The Tories repurposed hotels like the Cladhan into asylum accommodation without caring where in the country, from 2020, following the asylum backlog quadrupling since 2018. These figures reflect the Tories' failure to build a sustainable, affordable asylum system capable of making effective decisions.
Their hotels provide poor value for the taxpayer and undermine public confidence in the system.
Last week's figures show that Labour are now making substantial progress in restoring control and fairness to the system.
Locally, even without fully accounting for the Cladhan being empty, Falkirk is amongst the ten local authority areas with the fewest asylum seekers per head in any type of Accommodation at the end of June.
The national figures are equally clear:
The number of people making dangerous and illegal small-boat crossings has fallen by nearly half in a year, to the lowest level in 6 years.
The number of asylum hotels has fallen from a peak of 400 under the Tories to 160 at the end of June, with more to come as the number of people living in them has halved in one year.
Around 40,168 people are awaiting an initial decision, compared with 90,812 last year and less than a quarter of the 2023 peak.
The grant rate has fallen to 39 per cent, from 49 per cent last year and a peak of 77 per cent under the Tories.
The appeals backlog remains too high. That is why I will support the Government's legislation to reform the appeals system, with the Home Office already having brought in a new target to conclude appeals within 24 weeks rather than the current average of 67 weeks.
This progress is enabling hotels to close. Last month, I confirmed that the Cladhan was empty.
Since elected, I have repeatedly lobbied Home Office ministers to close it for good. In June, then Border Security and Asylum Minister Alex Norris told me: “I want to see that hotel closed.” When I raised it again in July, he said the Government was “resolute” about doing so. After receiving confirmation it was empty in August, I will continue pressing until permanent closure is confirmed.
Meanwhile, Reform threatens to put immigration detention centres in our town and those like it if we don't vote for them and the Tories race to chase them to the bottom, hoping to disguise their responsibility.
Their solutions won't work. The answer remains more effective decision-making, removing those with no right to remain, reducing dangerous small-boat crossings and ending the use of the Tories' costly hotels. That is what Labour have set out to do—and the numbers don't lie: it's working.