Wethersfield: Priti Patel accuses government of being 'secretive' over asylum housing plan

Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel has accused the authorities of being "secretive" astir plans to location asylum seekers astatine an ex-RAF base.

The MP for adjacent Witham said she had repeatedly asked for a timeframe but the Home Office had been "evasive".

The plans for the tract person been criticised by charities and the section assembly arsenic inappropriate.

The archetypal radical of migrants moved connected to the disused RAF basal successful July.

The Home Office yet wants to spot 1,700 radical astatine the site, which would marque it the UK's largest asylum accommodation centre.

In a missive to Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, Dame Priti said nary clarity had been provided to her oregon section partners connected however agelong the Home Office expected to usage the tract to location asylum seekers.

"Clear answers present request to beryllium provided by the Home Office and the authorities indispensable beryllium transparent alternatively than evasive," she wrote. "The deficiency of clarity has been alarming and staggering."

The Home Office has been contacted for comment.

The Telegraph reported that an interior Home Office papers stated the authorities was readying to usage 2 erstwhile RAF bases - astatine Wethersfield and Scampton successful Lincolnshire - for betwixt 3 to 5 years.

Charities person said the Wethersfield tract is distant and not due for lodging asylum seekers, claiming the buildings are successful a authorities of disrepair.

Earlier this year, Braintree District Council sought an injunction to halt Wethersfield being utilized to location asylum seekers but it was denied.

Lawyers for the assembly said the Home Office had failed to instrumentality into relationship issues including entree to healthcare and the ageing wastewater proviso connected site.

The assembly is present seeking a judicial reappraisal to halt the Home Office utilizing the site.

The authorities says it wants to determination distant from utilizing costly hotels to location asylum seekers, which it says is costing the state £6.2m a day.

The expanding numbers claiming asylum - and the backlog of unprocessed claims - has led to a maturation successful the usage of hotels arsenic impermanent accommodation.

Instead the authorities is trying to usage alternatives, similar barges and erstwhile subject bases.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has besides made stopping radical crossing the Channel successful tiny boats 1 of his cardinal priorities, to stem the travel of arrivals.