Labour is shipping small boat migrants to Cameron Barracks in Inverness and the Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex from next month. That sound you can hear is the screech of a U-turn…
Labour repeatedly attacked the plans:
- March 2023: Using old military sites is “an admission of failure” according to Yvette Cooper. Repeated every time the Tories promoted their barracks plans…
- August 2024: “Labour is preparing to end the use of large military sites… ministers believe that by clearing the asylum backlog and speeding up processing they will be able to eliminate the need for large sites altogether.“
- February 2025: Matthew Roycroft says “The previous government had a policy of exiting hotels partly by acquiring some large and novel sites, such as barges, former military land and so on… The current government’s policy is also to exit hotels but to do it in a different way, with a large number of smaller sites.“
The Home Office is using the sites for “up to 12 months” according to the local council. Wealden District Council – which oversees the Crowborough site – says it won’t try to stop the use of the site: “The decision rests entirely with the Home Office. We are advised that any challenge to its use on planning grounds would not succeed.” The council is run by the Greens and the LibDems – the former of which has tried to designate the area a “County of Sanctuary for Migrants”…
It adds that small boat asylum seekers will “receive a briefing and orientation about the site and the local community, including sessions on anti-social behaviour and road safety.” Reassuring…
