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Braverman says she never blocked hotel transfers or ignored legal advice – but she did block release of ‘thousands of people’ with nowhere to stay
Braverman says, when she became home secretary, she was shocked to learn that 35,000 asylum seekers are being housed in hotel accommodation, at “exorbitant cost” to the taxpayer.
She says she ordered a review.
She says she has never blocked the use of hotels for asylum seekers. Since she became home secretary 12,000 asylum seekers have arrived, and 9,500 of them have moved out of Manston or Western Jet Foil – many going into hotels.
I foresaw the concerns at Manston in September and deployed additional resource and personnel to deliver a rapid increase in emergency accommodation.
To be clear, like the majority of the British people I am very concerned about hotels but I have never blocked their usage.
Indeed since I took over 12,000 people have arrived, 9,500 people have been transferred out of Manston or Western Jet Foil, many of them into hotels.
And I have never ignored legal advice, as a former attorney general I know the importance of taking legal advice into account.
At every point I have worked hard to find alternative accommodation to relieve the pressure at Manston.
But she says she is opposed to the premature release of people into the community without anywhere to stay.
What I have refused to do is to prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay. That is not just the wrong thing to do. That would be the worst thing to do, for the local community, for the safety of those under our care and for the integrity of our borders.
Key events
Filters BETA
Braverman says hotel accommodation for asylum seekers on average cost £150 per person per night. She says by her standards that pays for “quite a nice hotel”. She says complaints about the quality of the accommodation provided are unjustified.
Dame Angela Eagle (Lab) says, if the immigration system is broken, who has been in power for the last 12 years?
Braverman says uncontrolled immigration became a problem when Labour was in power.
Sir Edward Leigh (Con) says: “If people don’t want to go to Manston, they can stay in France.” He says Suella Braverman is under attack because she is determined to tackle the problem. Is she willing to change the law?
Braverman says she does want to change the law. She says it is too easy for people who are not genuine asylum seekers to remain in the UK for long periods of time.
Braverman claims she is victim of ‘political witch-hunt’
Labour’s Chris Bryant says he believes in the “rehabilitation of offenders”, but says “you have to serve the time first”. He says Braverman broke the ministerial code six times, but only resigned for six days.
Braverman says she covered this in the letter she released earlier today.
She also says she is the victim of a “political witch-hunt” by people who are “ignoring the facts of the problem”.
In response to a question from Labour’s Stella Creasy, the home secretary, Suella Braverman, said some asylum seekers were being housed in four-star hotels, costing £150 a night. She said she thought there were better ways of spending public money.
Creasy, who did not get an answer to her question about whether the government would publish the contracts that applied for the care of refugee children, said Braverman appeared not to care.
The Home Secretary just refused to publish details of contract for care of hundreds of refugee children she’s placed in hotels – often 7 to a room – whilst claiming must be nice as it’s costing £150 a night. She either has no idea what she’s commissioned or just doesn’t care.
— stellacreasy (@stellacreasy) October 31, 2022
Back in the Commons Joanna Cherry (SNP) asks Braverman to confirm that detaining people in Manston could amount to illegal detention.
Braverman says she takes legal advice very seriously. But she says releasing asylum seekers in Kent to no fixed abode is not an acceptable option to her.
I have beefed up the post at 5.32pm to include the quote from Suella Braverman where she accused Labour of not being serious about tackling “the invasion on our southern coast”. You may need to refresh the page to get it to appear.
The SNP’s Stuart C McDonald is speaking now.
He says Braverman says she did not block the use of hotel accommodation. But did she block the procurement of extra hotel accommodation?
And, referring to Braverman’s letter, he says if Braverman resigned for one breach of the ministerial code, why is she still in office when she broke the code six times?
Braverman says she will admit things that she did wrong. But she will not apologise for things she did not do. It has been claimed she leaked information that was top secret, she says. That is wrong, she says. It has been claimed she leaked information relating to cybersecurity, she claims. That is wrong, she says. It has been claimed that she leaked information related to the intelligence agencies, she says. That is wrong, she says.
(In fact, these are not claims that were made in the mainstream news coverage of what happened.)
Braverman claims ‘illegal immigration … out of control’ and Labour not serious about tackling ‘invasion of southern coast’
In response to Cooper, Braverman accused Labour of not wanting to tackle the migration problem. She says the system is broken, and illegal immigration is out of control.
💥Astonishing.
Suella Braverman – home secretary of a government that has been in power for 12 years – admits: “The system is broken. Illegal immigration is out of control.”
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 31, 2022
Braverman says she is determined to address this. She claims that that is why some MPs want her out of office.
UPDATE: Braverman said:
Let’s be clear about what is really going on here: the British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast and which party is not.
Some 40,000 people have arrived on the south coast this year alone. Many of them facilitated by criminal gangs, some of them actual members of criminal gangs.
So let’s stop pretending that they are all refugees in distress. The whole country knows that is not true. It’s only the honourable members opposite who pretend otherwise.
We need to be straight with the public. The system is broken. Illegal migration is out of control and too many people are interested in playing political parlour games, covering up the truth than solving the problem.
In her response, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, says she is aware of evidence that Braverman did specifically ignore legal advice. She says that that Braverman broke the ministerial code repeatedly, and she says on one occasion she broke it three times.
Braverman says she never blocked hotel transfers or ignored legal advice – but she did block release of ‘thousands of people’ with nowhere to stay
Braverman says, when she became home secretary, she was shocked to learn that 35,000 asylum seekers are being housed in hotel accommodation, at “exorbitant cost” to the taxpayer.
She says she ordered a review.
She says she has never blocked the use of hotels for asylum seekers. Since she became home secretary 12,000 asylum seekers have arrived, and 9,500 of them have moved out of Manston or Western Jet Foil – many going into hotels.
I foresaw the concerns at Manston in September and deployed additional resource and personnel to deliver a rapid increase in emergency accommodation.
To be clear, like the majority of the British people I am very concerned about hotels but I have never blocked their usage.
Indeed since I took over 12,000 people have arrived, 9,500 people have been transferred out of Manston or Western Jet Foil, many of them into hotels.
And I have never ignored legal advice, as a former attorney general I know the importance of taking legal advice into account.
At every point I have worked hard to find alternative accommodation to relieve the pressure at Manston.
But she says she is opposed to the premature release of people into the community without anywhere to stay.
What I have refused to do is to prematurely release thousands of people into local communities without having anywhere for them to stay. That is not just the wrong thing to do. That would be the worst thing to do, for the local community, for the safety of those under our care and for the integrity of our borders.
Braverman is now talking about the immigration and asylum situation more widely.
There is a “global migration crisis”, she claims
We have seen an unprecedented number of attempts to illegally cross the channel in small boats. Some 14,000 people have crossed this year alone, more than double the number of arrivals by the same point last year.
She says the UK is working with France to stop Channel crossings.
Co-operation with the French has stopped over 29,000 illegal crossings since the start of the year, twice as many as last year, and destroyed over 1,000 boats.
Our UK-France joint intelligence cell has dismantled 55 organised crime groups since it was established in 2020.
There has been a surge in the number of people coming from Albania, she says.
She says people coming to the UK from safe countries are not welcome.