There are 17 local authorities with no taxpayer-supported asylum seekers, an analysis by the Daily Mail reveals after Andy Burnham vowed to send more to middle-class areas.
The Prime Minister vowed yesterday to ensure arrivals are not only placed in the ‘poorest communities’ when pressed about proposals for a migrant camp near the tiny Oxfordshire village of Piddington.
‘All parts of the country need to play their part,’ he said – prompting the Tories to accuse him of wanting to ‘dish out another vindictive punishment beating to the UK’s middle classes’.
Asylum seekers who are waiting for a decision on their asylum claim are often eligible for accommodation and money to cover their living expenses. This is provided by the Home Office, although the migrants themselves are dispersed across the country.
Home Office figures showing the number of supported asylum seekers per local authority at the end of March reveal the areas with none are overwhelmingly rural beauty spots such as the Cotswolds, Derbyshire Dales, Malvern Hills, the New Forest and the Scottish Highlands.
Others include Mid Devon, East Hertfordshire, Ceredigion, a scenic county in west Wales, and Hart, a 118-square-mile local authority taking in major towns, rural parishes and villages in Hampshire.
The Gloucestershire market town of Tewkesbury is also on the list, as are the Isle of Wight, Isles of Scilly, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Mid and East Antrim and Mid Ulster, and Na h-Eileanan Siar – an island chain off the west coast of Scotland.
It comes as Labour’s borders minister doubled down on Mr Burnham‘s insistence that wealthier areas will have to take more migrants after the number of crossings under his premiership passed the 3,000 mark.
Asylum accommodation – such at The Bell Hotel in Epping – has been the focus of several flash points around the country in recent years
Anna Turley defended plans for 1,200 migrants to be housed near the village of Piddington, which has a population of just 400.
She said there needed to be a ‘fair and equitable system’ for distributing asylum seekers across the country.
Under Home Office plans, a former military base in Bicester, Oxfordshire, will provide accommodation for 1,250 male asylum seekers.
But the residents of Piddington – which sits near the proposed site – have voted to stage a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK as part of their protests against the plans.
Ms Turley defended the plans this morning, telling LBC: ‘This is about fairness. This is making sure that there is distribution around the country, and this is about a more fair and equitable system that limits the impact on local communities.’
Asked about a potential influx of asylum seekers three times as large as Piddington’s population, the Home Office minister said: ‘Well, I suppose they’re not going to be in the village. They’re going to be contained in a former military base.’
But pressed on whether asylum seekers would be free to leave the site, Ms Turley replied: ‘They will be allowed out, but everything they need will be on that site. So they will be managed. They will be contained.’
She added: ‘They’re on a self-contained site. We are looking at former military bases around the country.
‘We are also looking at former industrial sites, student accommodation, other means by which we can put people in secure places that is contained, that is manageable and… is more affordable than putting people in hotels.
‘We know where people are. We can manage the system.’
Asked if she would be happy for a similar number of people to arrive in her Redcar constituency, Ms Turley said: ‘We don’t have a former military base… but the reality is it’s about fairness.’
She continued: ‘The point the Prime Minister was making was this is about fairness.
‘We take our fair share of asylum seekers in Redcar, and the point is lots of working class places around the country – I talked about Blackpool, places with hotels – have had to bear more than their fair share.
‘And this is about fairness. This is making sure that there is distribution around the country, and that this is about a more fair and equitable system that limits the impact on local communities.
‘By having secure and maintained and managed facilities like former military bases, it’s a much better way to keep people in one place and reduce the impact on local communities.’
The Gloucestershire market town of Tewkesbury is one of 17 areas with no supported asylum seekers
Aslyum seekers staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Oxford, another hotel that has been a target of protests
Mr Burnham was asked on GB News about the planned camp yesterday. He said: ‘I will listen to what people are saying and respond to the concerns that they are putting forward.
‘I don’t know the issue yet in detail, but in some ways, as I understand it, it is about creating secure space.’
He added: ‘It’s obviously going to be challenging, but I am prepared always to listen to people, to work with people and to pick up legitimate concerns, and I will address those concerns.
‘I do have to say, we cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers. I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part.
‘We understand people’s concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington.’
His comments came as official Home Office figures confirmed that 230 people were aboard the record ‘mega-dinghy’ that was brought into Dover on Monday.
That pushed the total since Labour came to power – beginning with the day after the General Election in July 2024 – past the 80,000 mark.
In comparison with Mr Burnham, Sir Keir Starmer’s first 22 days as PM saw 2,258 small-boat migrants reach Britain.
Asylum accommodation has been the focus of several flash points around the country in recent years.
Last week, 15 people were arrested during trouble in Thetford, Norfolk, after anti-immigration protesters demonstrated outside homes they believed housed asylum seekers.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Andy Burnham is planning to dish out another vindictive punishment beating to the UK’s middle classes. Labour has hammered hard-working families with punitive tax increases galore, increased regulation and soaring energy bills.
Andy Burnham vowed yesterday to ensure arrivals are not only placed in the ‘poorest communities’
The record-breaking dinghy carries some 230 migrants across the English Channel
‘Now, Burnham plans to deliberately flood more neighbourhoods with thousands of illegal immigrants who he has let into this country, and many of whom will commit serious crimes including rape and murder.’
Just two weeks after he insisted Labour’s boats plan was working, the Prime Minister vowed to ‘change our tactics’ to tackle the gangs bringing migrants across the Channel.
Referring to pictures of the latest mega-dinghy, Mr Burnham added: ‘I know people will have been worried to see that image yesterday. It shows that the gangs are changing their tactics but so will we – we will now change our tactics and we will be relentless in chasing them down. I said that when I visited Dover just over a week ago and I meant it.’
But Mr Philp warned: ‘We now have a full-blown Burnham borders crisis. Unvetted illegal immigrants – mainly young males – flood across the Channel every day there are calm seas.
‘Andy Burnham’s claim to have a working plan lies in tatters.’
Monday’s record-breaking mega-dinghy brought more people to Britain than a typical Ryanair flight. The boat was originally carrying more than 260 passengers, including children, when it almost sank.
When the overloaded boat – which was designed for a maximum of 40 – was battered by choppy waters, at least 30 people were thrown into the waters off the northern French coast.
One shocking image showed them in the sea before they were rescued by French police and gendarmes, who have a controversial policy of not intercepting most small boats in the water because they claim it could endanger those on board.
French lifeboatmen yesterday described how scores of men, women and children packed on to the Chinese-made PVC boat on a beach between Berck-sur-Mer and Merlimont, south of Le Touquet, on Sunday afternoon.
A spokesman for the SNSM – France’s equivalent of the RNLI – said all had been hiding in sand dunes after paying people smugglers for a passage.
He said: ‘A veritable tide then rushed the 15-metre (49ft) boat. Due to overloading, several were thrown from the vessel – around 30 ended up in the water as the craft continued on its way.’
The picture released by the SNSM at Berck shows dozens of mainly young men floundering in the Channel, following the initial boarding soon after 5pm.
Jean-Marc Lamblin, director of the SNSM’s Berck-sur-Mer branch, said he was seeing ever-larger boats being used by smuggling gangs and there was ‘no limit’ to how many people they would cram on board.
‘Over the past three months, we’ve been seeing more and more 15-metre boats,’ he said. ‘There really is no limit now’.
The dinghy was 7ft larger than vessels which set previous records last month, and more than 10ft longer than a standard double-decker bus.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said that illegal arrivals were ‘out of control’.
He posted on social media last night: ‘230 migrants landed on our shores yesterday. This is a national security emergency.’
The mega-dinghy was eventually escorted to England by the UK Border Force, HM Coastguard and the RNLI, beating the previous record of 165 migrants who reached Britain on a single boat in July. Last week, 173 people were packed on to a single boat but it disintegrated off the French coast after catching fire. Everyone on board was rescued.
The Egyptian people smuggler who piloted the boat has been sentenced to a year in jail following a fast-track trial on Friday.
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