Furious council discovers hundreds of hidden asylum seekers have been shipped into city despite telling Home Office it had no more room for them
Portsmouth City Council found that 55 private rental properties were being used to house a minimum of three asylum seekers each last week.
The migrants have been staying in homes of multiple occupation (HMO) - not council housing.
It comes just two years after James Hill, Portsmouth's director of housing, told the Home Office that the 'system's capacity was such that we couldn't support additional asylum seekers'.
But when a public meeting was hosted in July by Amanda Martin, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, figures showed the number of private rentals being used to house migrants had increased from 10 at the end of 2019 to 58 in April 2024, The Times first reported.
The council confirmed with the Home Office last week that the number is now at 55, according to the newspaper.
The data was uncovered by Ms Martin after Clearsprings Ready Homes wrote to a parliamentary committee this year amid an inquiry into accommodation for asylum seekers.
Portsmouth City Council said it was never notified about the use of the properties to house migrants.
A spokesperson said: 'We were previously not aware of the number of properties being used in the city.
'We have made it clear that the processes [the Home Office] has are not adequate and they should be formally notifying a senior officer.'
A Home Office spokesperson said: 'We are continuing to expand the use of dispersal accommodation as part of our strategy to reduce reliance on costly hotels and deliver a more sustainable and cost-effective asylum system.
'This approach is being implemented in close consultation with local authorities across the UK to ensure dispersal is balanced and community needs and concerns are taken into account.
'This Government inherited an asylum system in chaos, with tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck in the backlog being housed by the taxpayer. At its peak, less than two years ago, there were 400 asylum hotels in use at a cost of almost £9million a day.
'We have taken urgent action to fix the system – more than doubling asylum decisions and cutting the backlog by 41 per cent.
'The cost of asylum hotels was reduced by almost a billion pounds in 2024/25 compared to the previous year, and we have put in place the major reforms which will allow us to end the use of asylum hotels entirely by the end of this Parliament.'
The news comes amid nationwide protests against the housing of illegal immigrants.
Last month, demonstrations escalated with tense stand–offs in cities including Portsmouth.
More than 40 anti–immigration demonstrators confronted almost 30 activists holding Stand Up to Racism placards outside the Royal Beach Hotel. Some on the anti–immigration side hung a banner which said 'protect our children' outside the hotel.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faced mounting pressure over the issue last night after 700 people were involved in angry clashes outside a migrant hotel in a Scots town
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faced mounting pressure over the issue last night after 700 people were involved in angry clashes outside a migrant hotel in a Scots town.
Police had to call in reinforcements as local residents and anti-racism groups clashed in angry scenes that saw bottles and other objects thrown outside the hotel in Falkirk which can hold more than 50 asylum seekers.
Community tensions had reached fever pitch after Afghan asylum seeker Sadeq Nikzad, 29, – a former resident in the hotel – was jailed in June for raping a local 15-year-old schoolgirl.
Yesterday, one of Sir Keir's own Labour MPs said he believed that migrants should be removed from Falkirk's Cladhan Hotel.
Euan Stainbank, the MP for Falkirk, said: 'These hotels don't work for host communities or those who stay there and their use will be ended by this government.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BreakingNews.ie
44 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Donald Trump is ‘not a force for good' London Mayor says
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said he would be 'more than happy' to meet Donald Trump – despite warning that the US President could be 'inadvertently radicalising people' and is 'not a force for good'. Mr Khan dismissed jibes that President Trump made against him on a recent visit to Scotland, where he claimed the London Mayor was 'a nasty person' who has 'done a terrible job'. Advertisement The Labour politician said remarks such as those were 'water off a duck's back'. However, he told an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe it sometimes felt like he was 'nine years old again' and 'in the school playground'. Mr Khan, speaking at the Political Party show with comedian Matt Forde, hit back at the US President, saying: 'Somebody who has views like he does about black people, about women, about gays, about Muslims, about Mexicans, thinks I'm nasty. 'Really. He is the leader of the free world, arguably the most powerful man in the world, and really.' Advertisement He spoke out as he said that records showed since the middle of January this year – when Mr Trump began his second term in the White House – and July 'there have never been more Americans applying to British citizenship and living in London'. The Mayor said: 'So I think Americans have got good taste by and large.' He added that he hoped the President would come to London during his state visit to the UK next month, with Sir Sadiq stressing the 'diversity' of the capital was a 'strength, not a weakness'. Despite his comments about the US President, Sir Sadiq Khan said he would be 'happy' to meet Donald Trump (Jordan Pettitt/PA) Speaking about this diversity, he insisted: 'I think it makes us stronger not weaker, richer not poorer. Advertisement 'And when President Trump says some of the things he does, it brings from the periphery to the mainstream, views that are potentially dangerous. 'He inadvertently – I'm not going to suggest he does it deliberately – he inadvertently could be radicalising people with views that could lead to them doing things that are dangerous.' He spoke out about fears that minorities 'could be treated less favourably because of the views of the President of the USA' as he accused Mr Trump of 'using London and our diversity as a political football, as a proxy for a culture war'. The London Mayor continued: 'On a personal level, it is water off a duck's back, but we can't run away from the fact that there are some really serious challenges we face as a western society and President Trump, in my view, I speak generally, isn't a force for good.' Advertisement However he insisted that he would be 'more than happy to meet President Trump' saying he would seek to show him that it is 'possible to be proud to be a westerner and a proud to be Muslim, that it is possible to be British, and proud to be British, and be of Pakistani origin and be a law abiding citizen and we aren't three headed monsters'. The Labour politician said: 'I suspect President Trump may have formed a view of Muslims because of the actions of a small minority of really bad people who are terrorists and use Islam in a perverted way. 'What I would want President Trump to know is that is a very small fraction of Muslims across the globe. 'So if there was an opportunity to meet President Trump, I would be more than happy to do so.' Advertisement
BreakingNews.ie
44 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Police make six arrests at asylum hotel protest in London
Police made six arrests at a protest outside a hotel in London that has been used to house asylum seekers. Protesters gathered outside the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf on Sunday afternoon, with some setting off pink flares and waving England flags. Advertisement Some demonstrators carried a banner that said: 'We're not far right but we're not far wrong. Don't gamble with our lives. Stop the boats.' The Metropolitan Police said six arrests were made for breaching Section 14 Public Order conditions, possession of Class B drugs, and assaulting an emergency worker. In a post on X, the Metropolitan Police said: 'We have imposed conditions using Section 14 of the Public Order Act to prevent serious disruption at the protests in Canary Wharf. 'The group protesting against the use of the hotel by asylum seekers have been instructed to remain on the pavement opposite the Britannia Hotel.' Advertisement The hotel has been the site of numerous anti-migrant protests in recent weeks.
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Rank unfairness of UK today means Starmer's Two Tier Kier nickname has stuck – but here's how he can shed it
FOR those enraged at growing evidence of 'two-tier' Britain, the acquittal of Ricky Jones last week was just the latest depressing example. Here was a Labour councillor being cleared of encouraging violent disorder despite calling for far-right protesters to have their throats slit. 3 3 Reform and the Tories seized on the case as yet another blinding display of courtroom double standards. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wasted no time laying the travesty squarely at the feet of Sir Keir Starmer. In a tweet viewed more than two million times, he said 'as far as I can see, this Labour Government seems to be quite happy with two-tier justice'. Cue howls of anger from online liberals, who breathlessly crowed that not only was he disrespecting the decision of a jury, he was unfairly meting out blame to ministers. 'You ought to know this has nothing to do with them', retorted the arch-Conservative wet Dominic Grieve. 'That is the hallmark of a rabble rouser.' Rank unfairness But people are roused. In fact, they are bloody furious about what they perceive to be rampant 'two-tierism'. The refrain thundered into the political lexicon like a bullet train in the tinderbox aftermath of last year's Southport riots. In that sticky, angry summer, there was a feeling the clunking fist of the British state was being disproportionately brought down upon a certain kind of protester. For a public that routinely watches paedophiles walk free, the case of Lucy Connolly — slung in the slammer for a disgraceful but quite clearly stupid tweet — became a lightning rod. Even now, her 31-month jail sentence is the yardstick held up against some of the more mind-boggling outcomes from our judiciary. 'Two-tier' justice savaged by Kemi Badenoch who blasts 'extraordinary' decision to spare Huw Edwards You can argue the toss over how much blame ministers should shoulder for policing and court decisions. We have an independent judiciary but it is of course Parliament that makes our laws and ministers who make the political weather. Rightly or wrongly, Starmer is the man at the sharp end of the criticism. And much more dangerously for him, allegations of two-tier standards have now stretched well beyond the orbit of crime and seeped into every cranny of public life. It has become a byword for the rank unfairness voters see in modern day Britain. Charges of two-tierism are so common I'd eat my notebook if it is not the 2025 Oxford word of the year. For voters who feel they are being taken for a ride, they now see two-tierism everywhere they look Of all the unfortunate nicknames bestowed upon our Prime Minister, none has stuck quite so solidly as Two Tier Keir. For voters who feel they are being taken for a ride, they now see two-tierism everywhere they look. Ordinary British families struggling to pay the rent watch in fury as undocumented illegal migrants waltz into hotels for free bed and board. Law-abiding citizens paying full whack for council services and leisure activities read revelations in The Sun about small-boat migrants getting discounts. Millions of workers setting their alarm clocks for crack of dawn see an ever-growing number of their countrymen and women signing on for welfare with zero requirements to look for work. Taxpayers squeezed more than ever wonder where the improvement in public services is to show for it. Passengers paying hefty Tube fares rattle with rage as guards turn a blind eye to entitled oiks bumping the barriers. And just last week, we saw Birmingham council tear down St George flags from lamp-posts while turning a blind eye to Palestinian ones. Two-tierism is more than just a buzzword — it captures the mood of a nation fed up with a system they increasingly feel is not on their side. The PM's political enemies are alive to just how damaging the Two Tier Keir narrative has become. Consider how just last year those who brandished allegations of two-tierism were dismissed as cranks and nutjobs, whereas now these are mainstream complaints. Even when Starmer was shoving Netflix show Adolescence down our throats, but neglected to watch a documentary about grooming gangs, he was accused of 'two-tier telly'. How does Sir Keir neutralise these attacks and restore the faith of a nation that loves rules and loathes unfairness? Winning the trust of voters always starts by showing them you get it. Starmer will never himself use the T-word — a refrain adopted mainly by the political Right. And it is unlikely this former lawyer will start openly criticising his old profession, although it is a good first step that he has pledged new legislation to stop dinghy-chasing lawyers weaponising European human-rights laws. Kick up backside Expect him to start wrapping himself up in the language of 'fairness' over the next few months, though, as he tries to show he does in fact get it. He tweeted yesterday: 'I will do what it takes to uphold the law and ensure fairness for the British people. 'If someone doesn't have the right to be in this country, we won't allow them to stay.' Which is all well and good, but the rhetoric has to be matched by results. Whitehall departments have been given a kick up the backside to deliver positive stories about this Government to sell. At a recent summer bash, No10 chiefs told Cabinet aides that the Health, Treasury and Environment departments had churned out the most 'top of the grid' stories — a pointed reminder to slackers to up their game. Stopping the boats, closing hotels, driving living standards, going after genuine criminals and getting more people into work — voters don't ask the world of their politicians, they just want the basics done right so they can get on in life. Sir Keir needs to restore that uniquely British sense of fairness — or it could all end in tiers. NEVER wrestle with a pig – you both get dirty but the pig likes it. I fear Sir Keir Starmer's latest mud-slinging campaign against Nigel Farage could see him end up on the wrong end of that old political slogan. 3 New Labour attack ads claim the Reform leader 'wants to make it easier to share revenge porn online' and would 'put women and girls at risk'. Another one attempts to portray him as best mates with social media misogynist Andrew Tate. It all comes shortly after ministers lampooned Farage, right, as 'on the side' of modern day Jimmy Saviles. Politics can be a dirty business and sometimes it pays dividends to go below the belt. But if the gloves are off, the PM should not be surprised if he now gets hit back twice as hard. And Reform are hardly the sort who will pull their punches. I suspect the real reason Labour has ratcheted up the criticism is that nothing else is sticking to Teflon Nige, or knocking him off his perch atop the polls. A No10 insider recently told me their attempts to undermine the costs of Farage's policies were futile. They said: 'We are so far out from a general election that nobody cares about whether the sums add up. It's all vibes.'
