Ministers have abandoned contentious proposals to host asylum seekers in a small community in North Yorkshire.
Ben Wallace, the secretary of defence, said today that he has “withdrawn” his proposal to utilise a decommissioned RAF site in Linton-on-Ouse to house up to 1,500 male asylum seekers.
When the proposals were first revealed by the Home Office in April, locals voiced indignation, and Hambleton District Council took legal action to stop them.
Home Secretary Priti Patel has previously been credited with using Linton-on-Ouse as a significant component of her campaign to crack down on migrants travelling over the Channel in tiny boats.
She also intends to deport anyone who enter the UK unlawfully to Rwanda.
The Home Office also hailed the construction of additional asylum reception facilities as a way to save the Government from paying an estimated £4.7 million per day for hotels to house those who enter the UK illegally.
It will now be necessary to find a different location for a welcome centre than Linton-on-Ouse, which is around 30 minutes’ drive from York’s city centre.
Today, Mr. Wallace was questioned about the site’s future. Mr. Wallace is a supporter of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race.
When Rishi Sunak, Ms Truss’s contender for the position of future prime minister, indicated he would urge the Home Office to find an alternative to utilising the Linton-on-Ouse site, he was questioned about his statements.
He didn’t reject it when he was in office, so that’s a fresh surprise, the defence secretary said.
“I believe he won’t be aware of what has been happening since he is not in the government.” I have withdrawn my offer for the location to the Home Office.
“It has been with them for a while.” I have other things I need to accomplish with that site, and you know we gave the Home Office access to other sites if they want to use them.
I have withdrawn my offer of that location to the Home Office, Mr. Wallace said. When Rishi Sunak was in government, it was one of the five locations we provided at the time, and he was undoubtedly in favour of it.
The intriguing thing is that he isn’t now.
Olga Matthias, of the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group, which was formed to fight the proposals, expressed her delight at the news as being “over the moon.”
The feeling of relief I have must be shared by everyone else now that the uncertainty has passed since the government had essentially placed the sword of Damocles over the whole hamlet for the previous four months, she said.
We have maintained that this was the “wrong strategy, wrong site,” and the Home Office would have realised this before the announcement if they had done even a little amount of investigation.
It’s a 600-person rural community. A village’s population cannot be tripled since there are no roads or streetlights in the area. There are just fields around it.
According to Home Office recommendations, asylum seekers should be housed in metropolitan areas with access to resources.
The Home Office said that “destitute single adult male asylum seekers who have their asylum claims under consideration” will be accommodated at the location after the unveiling of the Linton-on-Ouse proposals in April.
There are presently “no plans” to house families with children at the property, the government said.
According to the proposals, those who were seeking refuge at the location would not have been subject to a curfew and would have been “free to come and go but would be required to stay on site overnight.”
Ms. Truss had previously said that she believed the planned centre in Linton-on-Ouse was now “not going forward.”
The Foreign Secretary said, when asked about Mr. Sunak’s promise to reconsider the North Yorkshire location, “My understanding from the Defence Secretary is that site is not going forward.”
Therefore, because it won’t be moving ahead, the argument is irrelevant.
Kevin Hollinrake, a local MP, has already criticised the ‘disgraceful’ selection of Linton-on-Ouse as a location for an asylum receiving centre.
The Tory backbencher said earlier this year to GB News that the hamlet itself had 600 residents, essentially doubling its size.
There are 1,500 young, unmarried males from all over the globe who are staying there for up to six months, and they are free to roam the hamlet.
“You can appreciate the worry and perhaps terror among the residents of that community.
“It is just wrong,” said one person, “to sacrifice one hamlet on the altar of a national policy objective.”