Britons have less confidence in Rishi Sunak stopping small boats than they did a month ago, despite a blizzard of government announcements about the issue.
In March the government unveiled a five-point plan to tackle illegal immigration across the Channel, as well as proposals to move migrants out of hotels and into military bases and barges. Suella Braverman, the home secretary, visited Rwanda to close loopholes in the deportation deal.
The flurry of activity has buoyed Conservative MPs, some of whom believe the focus on the issue will help Sunak to close the gap with Labour.
But new polling by YouGov for The Times suggests that the public’s confidence in Sunak’s ability to deliver on the issue has waned rather than strengthened in recent weeks.
On March 8, the day after Sunak announced a host of legislative measures to stop boat crossings, 26 per cent of the public thought it was likely he would be able to deliver. In contrast, 59 per cent thought it was unlikely.
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In a new poll conducted last Wednesday and Thursday, only 21 per cent thought Sunak was likely to be able to stop the boats. Some 63 per cent thought he was unlikely to be able to do so. Among those who voted Conservative at the last election, 32 per cent thought the prime minister was likely to be able to achieve his goal and 60 per cent thought it was unlikely.
There is also scepticism that some of the measures announced by the government will ever happen. Thirty per cent thought that an end to the practice of accommodating asylum seekers in hotels probably would happen, while 52 per cent thought it probably would not. Only 24 per cent believed that moving asylum seekers into barges or disused cruise ships probably would happen, while 54 per cent thought it probably would not.
Local officials complained to the Home Office that they were not warned about details of a plan to house up to 1,200 male migrants in a disused prison by the end of the year, The Times has learnt.
The government announced last week that it would use HMP Northeye in Bexhill, East Sussex, to meet migrants’ “essential living needs and nothing more” as part of a push to make crossing the Channel less attractive.
A four-page factsheet published by the Home Office said the scheme “would create new jobs and could bring new investment into the area”. It claimed that the site would be “as self-sufficient as possible” in order to “minimise the impact on local communities and services.”
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But in an email to local councillors sent on Thursday, seen by The Times, the chief executive of Rother district council wrote: “I have been made aware of a fact sheet on the gov.uk website . . . Just so you are aware, neither RDC or [East Sussex county council] were consulted on the contents or informed of its existence, matters which have been raised with the Home Office.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We understand the concerns of local communities and will work closely with councils and key partners to manage the impact of using these sites, including liaising with local police to make sure appropriate arrangements are in place.”
Meanwhile Braverman appeared to downplay the possibility that the first flights transporting migrants to Rwanda could take off this summer. When the home secretary visited Kigali last month a government source told newspapers Braverman was “certainly working towards getting flights off by the summer”. But asked by Sky News yesterday when they would take off, Braverman said: “We are making very steady progress. I am not going to give a deadline as to when flights will take off.”
Gas workers’ barge is able to house 500
A three-storey barge that once housed workers building a gas plant in the Shetland Islands could be used by the government to accommodate asylum seekers (Henry Zeffman writes).
The Home Office is considering chartering the Bibby Stockholm, which can house 506 people. It is operated by Liverpool-based Bibby Marine. The Barbados Maritime Ship Registry told the Sunday Mirror that Bibby Marine had “not yet signed the contract but they intend to take the job”.
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The vessel was built in 1976. It has been refurbished since it was described as an “oppressive environment” when the Dutch government used it to house asylum seekers. It was used by the energy firm Petrofac when its workers were building a gas plant. Chartering would cost £8,000 to £15,000 a day.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, said that the government was looking at “all sorts of land and sites and vessels” for migrant accommodation.
She told the BBC: “We’re talking to a lot of operators. A lot of owners of lots of different kinds of property around the country. We’re aiming to roll out these sites very quickly and start making them fit for accommodation purposes and relocate people onto those sites for asylum purposes. We’re looking at all options.”
Robert Jenrick, the migration minister, told the cabinet that the average cost of housing a migrant in a hotel had hit £150 a night — more than £6 million a day in total. A surge in migrants, coupled with the system for processing them proving time-consuming, has led to the Home Office scouring the country for extra rooms.
