Middle-class areas must house more asylum seekers, Andy Burnham insists

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that the country “cannot have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country” housing asylum seekers.

Instead, “all parts of the country” have a role in the dispersal process, where people trying to access refugee status are put up in longer-term temporary accommodation, he told GB News.

But shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said communities “shouldn’t be housing illegal immigrants anywhere”, regardless of how wealthy they are.

The Conservative frontbencher wrote on X: “Andy Burnham just doesn’t get it.

“We shouldn’t be housing illegal immigrants anywhere – wealthy or not.

“Illegal immigrants should all be deported within a week of arrival – to their country of origin or a safe third country like Rwanda.

“To do this we would need to leave the (European Convention on Human Rights) – which we should do.”

Asylum seekers have been housed at various sites throughout the country, including at former military sites in rural areas such as at Wethersfield in Essex and Crowborough in East Sussex.

The Government has plans for more housing at former military sites, subject to planning permission and approvals.

The Home Office is assessing whether Barnham Camp in Suffolk could be used to accommodate men aged between 18 and 65.

Protesters last weekend gathered outside the former RAF base and unrest has broken out in nearby Thetford, Norfolk, where people are thought to have tried to storm homes linked to asylum seekers.

The Home Office is also considering whether it could use a former military site at Bicester in Oxfordshire.

In response, residents of a nearby village, Piddington, voted to stage a referendum on leaving the United Kingdom.

Their parish council chairman, Tim McNally, has previously told LBC that “to have 1,250 people brought into an environment where there’s 350 people – that’s like adding 32 million people into London, as an example overnight”.

Asked about the Oxfordshire site, Mr Burnham told GB News: “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.”

The Prime Minister 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 the Piddington.”

Elsewhere in the country, hotels have been used to house asylum seekers, but the Government has committed to ending their use.

Hotels which asylum seekers have vacated include the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, the Delta Hotel Cheshunt in Hertfordshire, Best Western Stoke in Staffordshire, and the Wool Merchant Hotel in Halifax, West Yorkshire.