Ex-British home secretary Dame Priti Patel has accused her old department of being “evasive” over how long it intends to use a former air base to house asylum seekers.
In a letter to her successor Suella Braverman, Ms Priti said there had been an “alarming and staggering” lack of clarity about the plans for the former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex.
The site has been earmarked to house 1,700 asylum seekers by the autumn as part of Government plans to reduce the money spent on hotels.
Ministers have been evasive over their plans for the future of Wethersfield. They’ve bypassed the usual planning requirements, claimed the site is temporary for emergency use only and now we see they‘ve been planning to use the site for five years. This is unacceptable. https://t.co/dbBrgdc2Bg pic.twitter.com/7Pd7yVPzIw
— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) August 14, 2023
Advertisement
Ms Patel, whose Witham constituency is near the airfield, hit out after reports the site could be in use for five years.
The first asylum seekers moved into the site in July.
In her letter to Mrs Braverman and immigration minister Robert Jenrick, Ms Patel said she had asked a series of parliamentary questions but had received “no definitive answer”.
“It is therefore concerning to now see that it appears that the Home Office has put in place plans to use the site for asylum accommodation for a five-year period and considers that this meets the value for money requirement,” she said.
Ms Priti said the failure to provide a direct answer “gives the impression that the Home Office is being evasive”.
The possibility of the site being used for five years to achieve value for money emerged in a leaked memo reported by the Daily Telegraph.
Dame Priti suggested the British government was being “secretive about its intentions”.
She told Mrs Braverman: “Clear answers now need to be provided by the Home Office and the Government must be transparent rather than evasive.
“The lack of clarity has been alarming and staggering and I trust you will resolve this urgently.”
