Kettering MP invited to meet minister over migrant hotel

Philip Hollobone told the Commons he had no confidence in the Home Office over the placing of asylum seekers into hotels

An MP who called for immigration minister Robert Jenrick to "consider his position" has been invited to meet him in the coming days.

Philip Hollobone said it was unacceptable that a council was given no notice of migrants being moved to a Kettering hotel.

He said he felt "absolutely furious on behalf of local people".

Mr Jenrick said the number of people crossing the Channel was "putting immense pressure on our asylum system".

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In the Commons on Wednesday, Mr Hollobone described the situation as "chaotic" after North Northamptonshire Council was told 41 migrants had been moved into a hotel on Sunday "without any notification at all".

Speaking to BBC Radio Northampton, he said: "Asylum seekers are vulnerable people.

"They are going to be placed with nothing to do, there's no outside facilities, there's no kitchen facilities, there's extensive mould in the hotel so the conditions are bad."

He said that no information on the migrants, such as biometric data, had been passed to Northamptonshire Police.

"This process in Kettering has not been handled at all well, it is 100% unacceptable," he said.

Mr Hollobone said the government had to "get a grip" on people crossing the Channel.

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He has now been invited to a meeting on Tuesday with Mr Jenrick, along with North Northamptonshire Council, where he said he would be "expressing serious local concerns".

Mr Jenrick told the Commons: "We do have a number of serious issues that the Home Office have got to get right, quite clearly we have got to get the backlog of cases down.

"We have got to get people out of hotels, we have got to find sensible, good, value-for-money but decent accommodation."