Rachel Reeves gives Home Office incentive to slash migrant hotel costs quicker
HOME Secretary Yvette Cooper has been offered a cash incentive to slash the eye-watering costs of migrant hotels.
The Sun understands that Chancellor Rachel Reeves will let her Cabinet colleague keep a higher proportion of the savings on asylum spend the quicker she cuts it.
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A staggering £4billion a year is currently being splurged on accommodating migrants who have arrived on small boats or lorries.
Insiders close to the negotiations said Ms Reeves wants Ms Cooper to save around £500million next year, and £1billion the year after.
While ordinarily the Chancellor would claw back money saved, she will reward the Home Secretary with keeping some of the recouped cash for other projects if she excels the targets.
Ms Cooper has been lobbying furiously for a more generous settlement from the Treasury in next Wednesday's Spending Review, where Whitehall budgets are set.
She has insisted she needs more money for frontline policing - who have their work cut out as fewer criminals go to jail - and the security services trying to thwart rising threats.
Labour is under intense pressure to cut the ballooning cost of housing illegal migrants, with Channel crossings at a record high.
The National Audit Office now estimates taxpayer spending on migrant hotels to be £15.3billion over 10 years - three times higher than originally estimated.
The number of migrants in hotels has risen on Sir Keir Starmer's watch, having risen from 29,585 before the election to 38,079 in December, before falling back to 32,345 in March.
Ms Reeves has faced bitter battles with Cabinet ministers over their funding, including Housing Secretary Angela Rayner who last night had still not settled with the Treasury.
The Chancellor is refusing to break her fiscal rules by increasing borrowing, leaving very little money to increase day-to-day departmental spending.
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