Falkirk asylum hotel discussed in Parliament

A Westminster committee is discussing the use of asylum hotels - such as the Cladhan in Falkirk.

The hotel is being used to house people seeking asylum.

A number of protests have taken place outside the hotel over the last year by anti-immigration groups.

The Home Affairs Committee is looking at the future of asylum hotels across the UK.

Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank wants to end the use of asylum hotels.

Speaking to Central FM News, he said:

"The people of Falkirk deserve the truth.

"The Cladhan was opened by Conservative ministers, many of whom have moved over to Reform UK.

"Housing people in hotels is wrong for Falkirk, and wrong for people fleeing persecution.

"Since inheriting this chaos, the Labour Government have more than halved hotels from peak use, and cut the number of people in the system at any one time by 46%, all while the grant rate of asylum claims is falling as well.

"This is real progress to fix a broken system, compared to the whipped up rhetoric those parties who caused the problem in the first place are using.

"I continue to relentlessly push the Government to close the Cladhan as a priority, under the hotel exit plan."

The issue was raised in Parliament yesterday by Falkirk MP Euan Stainbank. Alex Norris, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, replied:

"I am conscious of this issue, and think also of the Cladhan hotel in Falkirk and the impact on the local community, because my hon. Friend is rightly very dogged in raising this with me. I want to see that hotel closed. We are, of course, in the slightly better weather of the year, which puts pressure on services. 

Nevertheless, we want the hotels closed. We have made a commitment to do that within this Parliament, but I say to colleagues that they will not be open a minute longer than they have to be."