Oral Answers to Questions

Charlie Dewhirst Excerpts

Monday 7th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

I am genuinely grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising this important issue again. He is right: fraud accounts for over 43% of all offences recorded by the crime survey for England and Wales. Tackling fraud relies on collaboration between law enforcement, industry and Government Departments. That means everyone playing their part, and we continue to urge the tech and social media companies to take stronger action to stop consumers being defrauded when using their sites.

[Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)]

7. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the use of asylum accommodation.

[Joe Robertson (Isle of Wight East) (Con)]

15. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the use of asylum accommodation.

[The Minister for Border Security and Asylum (Dame Angela Eagle)]

At the peak under the previous Government, there were 400 hotels in use across the country, at a cost of £9 million a day. Thousands of asylum seekers were left in limbo in those hotels as decision making collapsed. That was the chaos that this Government inherited a year ago, but we have taken action to restore order. We are cutting the overall cost of asylum accommodation, and we are committed to ending the use of these hotels entirely by the end of this Parliament.

[Charlie Dewhirst]

People are rightly concerned by reports that the Home Office is buying hotels to house asylum seekers. That appears to be completely at odds with the Government’s manifesto pledge to end the use of hotels. Will the Home Secretary or her Minister confirm to the House whether those reports are true or not true? Will she reassure my constituents in Bridlington and The Wolds that there are no plans to house illegal migrants in facilities in our local area?

[Dame Angela Eagle]

The Home Office is not buying hotels. As for the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, there are currently 61 service users housed in his area, which is less than 15% of the quota, and there are zero hotels.