I WORKED on asylum and migration policy for over a decade before I was elected as MP for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh.
I have seen first-hand the impact of a failed asylum system on our communities in Scotland, on local authority budgets and on asylum seekers themselves.
Tensions on asylum have been rising in recent years – particularly relating to asylum hotels. Communities complain that hotels pop up in their area, putting pressure on local services. Refugee charities call attention to safeguarding concerns. Meanwhile, the cost to the taxpayer grows, to public anger.
How did we end up here? As always, the trick is to follow the money. Do that and you will find a public procurement failure of the highest order – that exposes the dysfunctional legacy left by the Tories.
The Home Affairs Select Committee, of which I am a member, this week published our report on asylum accommodation. Our findings are shocking and enraging.
In 2019, the then-Conservative Government signed contracts with three private companies to provide accommodation and essential services to asylum seekers.
A combination of the pandemic and the Tories’ mismanagement of asylum processing put pressure on the system, so the companies started putting asylum seekers in hotels. This caused three massive problems.
Firstly, it enraged local communities: hotels were opened without even telling councils; it put pressure on local services; and community tensions shot up.
Secondly, it was the wrong place for asylum seekers: we found significant evidence of safeguarding failures.
Thirdly, it came at enormous cost: the price paid by the taxpayer ballooned. The hotel deal has already cost taxpayers £7 billion – a number that, without intervention, will rise to over £15 billion by the next election.
The new Labour Government is already reducing the cost of the asylum scheme. But we need to go further and faster to regain public trust.
In 2026, there is an opportunity to break these contracts. Labour must seize that moment and end the Tory scandal of outsourcing asylum to private profiteers.
I am calling on the Government to either abandon or substantially rewrite these appalling contracts, so we can have a system where local authorities and communities are in control, not private profiteers.
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