Shabana Mahmood has told GB News she would personally live next door to a migrant camp.
The Home Secretary claimed she would live next to an army camp housing illegal migrants “if that was part of the solution” to tackle the migrant crisis offered by her Government.
She made the remarks after fury engulfed the leafy market town of Crowborough – ever since Labour announced it would house more than 500 male migrants in the former army training camp in East Sussex last November.
Locals have flocked to the town centre every Sunday to protest the move, concerned about the impact it could have on local safety, particularly for women and girls.
Nevertheless, the Government doubled down on its plans by moving its first group of migrants into the camp in the early hours of a January morning.
Ms Mahmood invited GB News to Denmark last week where she was seeing how the Scandinavian country’s left-wing Government has cut asylum claims to a 40-year low.
During her visit to Copenhagen, she inspected a camp for recently-arrived migrants, a more Spartan centre for those about to be deported as well as visiting an asylum appeals tribunal.
Back in the UK, the Home Secretary’s plans to move migrants from hotels to army camps has proved controversial, with locals near Crowborough failing in a legal challenge to halt the scheme in the High Court last week.
Shabana Mahmood sat down with GB News’ Christopher Hope last week
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Asked by GB News’ Political Editor Christopher Hope if she understood why locals in Crowborough were worried, she said: “I understand the strength of feeling. Of course I do.
“I’ve had asylum hotels in my constituency as well, so I totally get what local people feel when they see either a hotel or obviously, as we’re now talking about military sites, I know how people feel.
“People have expressed that to me. Look, we have to get out of asylum hotels. I think that those are posing unique challenges in lots of communities.”
Ms Mahmood was pressed four times whether she herself would live next to a migrant camp if one were sited in her Birmingham Ladywood constituency.
BRITAIN’S MIGRANT CRISIS – READ THE LATEST:
Locals – and visitors – have flocked to Crowborough to protest Labour’s move
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She eventually replied that she would.
She said: “If there was a military site in Birmingham, Ladywood and it was taken over… I would accept that that’s part of the solution.
“I do know I’m not I’m not trying to do down the strength of feeling that’s happening publicly. I know that people feel strongly about it.
“But the hotels are posing an even bigger problem in this country. And we do, of course, have to put people somewhere and military sites with a much more basic accommodation that we’re putting in. I think that’s a better solution.
“It also addresses the pull factor of people coming in and staying in four star hotels. That cost us £53,000 per person per year.”
She added: “Look, I do understand, but we’ve got to put people somewhere. We’ve got to address the pull factor, the public order issues. We’ve got to address the impact on local communities as well.
“So what I would say is, you know, we are we are putting in a facility that will be well managed with security coverage. That is 24/7 working really closely with the local police as well because they’re not detained.”
It is an accommodation facility whilst people’s claims are being heard. I know it’s difficult, but we are required to put people somewhere. And I do think that military sites are a better alternative than the hotels that have spread across the country.”