02-08-2025
Labour council offers asylum seekers cooking lessons to ‘experience joy'
A Labour-run council is offering cooking classes to asylum seekers so they can 'experience joy'.
Cambridge City Council announced a new set of grants for community groups including funding for the lessons and also gardening classes for migrants.
It comes as the council became the second local authority to introduce a four-day week on full pay for staff.
Sir James Cleverly, the former Tory home secretary, said the move 'speaks volumes that Labour councils are spending taxpayers' money on cooking and gardening lessons to asylum seekers, whilst cutting back on bin collections all the while hiking council tax to record highs.'
'In both Whitehall and your town hall, under Labour – you pay more and get less,' he added.
The council denied any reductions in services such as bin collections, insisting that it continues to collect domestic waste, recycling and green waste.
Resettlement Community Grants, which were launched on July 23, offer up to £30,000 for 'arts and cultural projects, community crafts, cooking and food, gardening and connecting with nature, sports and other opportunities to experience joy'.
The council also pledged to 'extend support to enable more refugees or asylum seekers to settle in Cambridge' after deciding to increase the number of council homes made available to asylum seekers in March.
Delowar Hossain, a Tory councillor, was the only member of the council to oppose the move and spoke out about the recent decision to introduce a four-day week.
He said: 'Our residents work hard and pay taxes for full services. A four-day work week would mean they get only 80 per cent of the service for the same tax they currently pay.'
'Reducing inequality'
A spokesman for the council said Cambridge was 'proud to offer such a range of grants' which allow for 'projects that will help to reduce social or economic inequality for Cambridge residents with the most need'.
The Government has already faced criticism for encouraging the adoption of four-day weeks in public services.
In November last year, Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, did away with a 'best value' intervention issued by the previous Conservative Government against South Cambridgeshire.
The intervention would have allowed auditors to stop the reduced working hours.
Instead, her department stated: 'We encourage active and ongoing dialogue with the workforce and trade unions on any changes to local working arrangements.'
However, trade unions representing civil servants have increasingly called for more public bodies to adopt moves towards a four-day week, and the PCS union has called for Rayner's own department to follow suit.
Last year, its general secretary said: 'A four-day week would give workers an additional day to spend how they like.'
The Government plans to introduce a 'right to switch off' for council workers, preventing contact on days off, alongside a potential four-day week rollout across Whitehall and local authorities if union demands are met.
Tories argue the four-day week, union demands, and sanctuary city policies lead to higher taxes and worse services for taxpayers.
