Poorest areas should not house all asylum seekers, says Burnham
Baku, August 13, AZERTAC
Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham has suggested that wealthier areas of the UK should house more asylum seekers, according to BBC.
"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," he told GB News on Tuesday.
His comments came in response to a question about protests which have taken place in the village of Piddington, Oxfordshire over plans to provide accommodation for asylum seekers on a nearby former military base.
But shadow home secretary Chris Philp, responding to Burnham's comments, said: "We shouldn't be housing illegal immigrants anywhere – wealthy or not."
Labour has pledged to stop using asylum hotels, a costly form of accommodation that has become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.
The government has sought to house migrants at military sites across the country instead, announcing in June that it planned to open three more including the site in Bicester, Oxfordshire.
The plans have prompted protests there, with residents of nearby Piddington voting to stage a symbolic referendum on leaving the UK.
Burnham said on Tuesday that he would listen to and address the concerns being raised.
"I don't know the issue yet in detail, but in some ways, as I understand it, it is about creating secure space," he said.
"We understand people's concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington."
But he added: "I do believe all parts of the country need to work, to play their part."
After winning the Makerfield by-election in June, Burnham promised to end "HMO Britain" and said he would change Britain's asylum accommodation system.
HMOs, or houses in multiple occupation, have been widely used by government contractors to house asylum seekers, often in lower income, urban areas.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning, immigration minister Anna Turley said the number of hotels had gone from a peak of 400 under the Conservatives to 160 under Labour, and pledged all of them would close by 2029.
Turley said the government had already saved £1bn by closing hotels and opening alternative, secure sites for asylum seekers, including two former military bases, student accommodation and former industrial sites around the country.
"I think this is about fairness and we won't be asking anybody to take more than they can, and we won't be asking anyone to take more than their fair share," she said.
"What we've seen in the past is places like Blackpool, and other communities around the country where housing is perhaps cheaper and more plentiful, have had to take more than their fair share of asylum seekers," she added.
"That's put a huge burden on local communities and created real civil unrest, so we want to make sure that we're managing the system much better in a more sustained way that's reducing the impact on local communities.
"It's important that everybody plays their fair share in that, and it's about making sure that no one community is more over-pressured or overburdened than others."
Last week, there were anti-immigration demonstrations in the town of Thetford, Norfolk, with protesters attempting to enter homes where they believed asylum seekers were living.
In response to Burnham's interview, Philp reiterated the Conservatives' policy of leaving the European Convention on Human Rights in order to deport migrants to their country of origin or a safe third country.
"Andy Burnham just doesn't get it," he wrote on X.
"Illegal immigrants should all be deported within a week of arrival - to their country of origin or a safe third country like Rwanda."
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