Britain is not a sanctuary for lawbreakers, writes Chris Philp MP

So, I went. I had to see it with my own eyes.

I visited one of these asylum hotels. Places paid for by the taxpayer, meant to house those seeking refuge.

But what I found was an active hub for a black-market courier network. Nobody stopped it, nobody checked, nobody acted.

This is not a one-off. It is a loophole being exploited every single day and the public is funding it. We are housing people, feeding them and clothing them whilst they break our laws. They’re gaming the system and nobody in Government wants to do anything about it.

Britain is not a sanctuary for those who break our laws. At least, it shouldn’t be. But under Labour, we are funding hotels that double as criminal hotspots.

Platforms like Uber Eats, Just Eat, and Deliveroo are knowingly profiting. But they don’t remove illegal workers because nobody is forcing them to.

And so, I wrote directly to the Home Secretary. I also wrote to Deliveroo, Just Eat, and Uber Eats, the very platforms enabling this abuse, and demanded an immediate crackdown.

I called for three things: first, the removal of every illegal worker from their platforms; second, enforcement against any company found to be facilitating illegal employment; and third, a full review of what was happening inside Home Office-run accommodation and how these operations were allowed to thrive under the Government’s nose.

The law is clear. If you are claiming asylum in the UK, you cannot work. It ensures the system is used for genuine claims, not economic opportunism. So, if that rule is broken, the claim should be void and the person should be removed.

Instead of enforcing this, Labour’s answer was a measly pact with delivery firms to share data on hotel locations, as if account-sharing fraud and black-market exploitation would be solved this way. Toothless.

There is now a functioning black-market economy built on illegal labour. It is growing, and it is directly linked to the asylum system.

Illegal working is a pull factor. Smugglers are using it in their pitch. Immigrants are told they can come to Britain, be put up in a hotel, fed, and even work on the side. That is what they tell people, because under Labour today, unfortunately, it’s true.

So today, the Conservative Party is demanding urgent action.

We are calling for the Government to introduce new powers to strike out asylum claims from anyone caught working illegally, seize every penny they’ve earned, and deport them.

That money should be used to pay back the support they received while claiming asylum. Taxpayers should not be funding illegal labour. The public deserves their money back.

We are not asking for miracles, we are asking for consequences. Because without them, the system collapses.

People in this country are struggling. They are working hard, paying taxes, playing by the rules, and they are watching a system that rewards those who don’t. That is intolerable.

We either fix this now or accept that we no longer run our own immigration system.

I know where I stand. Now is the time for the Government to take the tough action we have not yet seen and introduce these proposals.

We can stop this, but the Government must act now. Because the line between law and lawlessness is something we must defend. And the Conservatives always will.