THE number of asylum seekers being housed in migrant hotels has hit 36,273, data has revealed in the wake of Rachel Reeves’ bruising Budget.
It comes after asylum spending was highlighted as a risk in the grim OBR report yesterday.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels at the end of September was 36,273, which is up 13 per cent from June.
There were 111,651 people getting asylum support (access to housing and money) in September – two per cent higher than last year.
Chris Philp MP, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “The days of mass low-skilled immigration must end. Britain cannot keep importing pressure on public services and expect the British people to absorb the cost.
“The fall in today’s figures is driven by the Conservative reforms we put in place on work visas, dependants, and students, but we need to go much further.
“And under a future a Conservative Government, only those who make a real contribution can stay permanently, and only British citizens will be eligible for benefits funded by British taxpayers.
“The Conservative Party will also introduce a binding annual cap on immigration, which Labour refuse to back.
“And while we will leave the ECHR and remove all illegal immigrants, Labour intend to create a pathway to citizenship for people who arrived here illegally. Only the Conservatives will deliver stronger borders.”
Net migration to the UK is at the lowest annual figure since 2021, the Office for National Statistics has also said.
In January 2021, following the freedom of movement between the EU+ and UK was ended.
Since then, EU+ nationals moving to the UK have either needed a visa, status on the EU Settlement Scheme, or indefinite leave to remain.
The ONS says EU net migration has more than halved. The fall is mostly due to fewer people arriving for work and study related reasons, with a steep decline in the number of dependants.
It comes in the wake of Reeves’ £30billion tax raid yesterday — funding huge increases to the welfare bill.
Asylum and welfare spending were both highlighted as risks in the grim OBR report.
It said balancing the books in the Home Office relies on fully ending the use of hotels for asylum-seekers in this Parliament.
But it pointed out that the number of migrants arriving by small boat and asylum seekers in supported accommodation has risen by 19 and 8 per cent, respectively, compared to last year.
The Chancellor was accused of cooking up a left-wing “Budget for Benefits Street” while fleecing strivers for more of their earnings.
Almost one million more Brits will be hauled into the higher band of income tax after she broke her promise to end threshold freezes.
The U-turn will see a quarter of all workers paying the 40 per cent rate by 2030-31.
Ms Reeves also refused to rule out more tax increases when quizzed after the Budget.
Earlier, her plea for “ordinary people to pay a little bit more” sparked fury yesterday after she pushed through billions more in welfare spending.
It comes after net migration peaked at an eye-watering 944,000 in 2023 after the numbers were revised up.
Nigel Farage insisted it is the influx of legal arrivals that is doing far “greater economic damage” than small boats.
The figures under the Tories were initially thought to be 906,000 but the ONS revised the sums.
Mary Gregory, the ONS’s population statistics chief, said previously: “Understanding the long-term international migration patterns of British nationals has been, and always will be, challenging due to the sheer number of British people crossing the border on a daily basis.
“Very few of these will be migrants and British people don’t need a visa to travel to the UK so we cannot use HOBI data to estimate migration of British nationals.
“Based on these new data and methods, it is clear the IPS continued to underestimate British emigration since 2021, and it also underestimated immigration.”
